Unbroken promises
by Saz1997
Summary: Story of Rachel as an adopted mum
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Thought it was time for me to start a new story, as I'm beginning to run out of ideas for my other ones but still going to try to update them as well as this. So it's a bit different Rachel doesn't have kids at the moment however she's going to adopt 2 girls- lily who's just turned 4 and Rosie who's 11. Rachel has a husband-joe and they've been together 10 years now. Please read and tell me what you think.

It was a Saturday evening and Rachel was going round her house frantically trying to tidy. Not that it actually needed cleaning, she'd already done that at least 5 times already that same day however she was determined for everything to be perfect for when the girls got there. She felt liked she'd been waiting for this day for so long and now it was finally here, all the meetings, endless hours on the phone, paperwork and at last she was getting to meet them.

"Rach you going to come down and have a cuppa before the girls get here?" Joe asked "the house is tidy enough"

Rachel was about to protest but then nodded her head, a cuppa was exactly what she needed at the moment.

The two of them went down and Rachel sat on her sofa while joe made her coffee for her, she felt really nervous and had butterflies in her stomach she just prayed they'd get through there first few hours together and everything would go okay.

Joe could see how nervous his wife looked so came and sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her.

"It's going to be fine you know"

"What of they don't like me though? What of they think I'm horrible or too strict or ..."

"Rach calm, there going to love you, you're great with kids" joe said "you're really are going to make an amazing mum you know"

"I hope so, it's the one thing I've always wanted so badly"

It was true both joe and Rachel had been desperate for kids however unfortunately things just hadn't worked out that way.

They drank their coffee and chatted however after about 10 minutes or so there was a knock at the door.

Rachel immediately jumped up and went straight over to open the door.

She saw the social worker stood there Rosie was next to her, she was a very pretty girl Rachel thought to herself however she looked a lot younger than 11, Rachel tried to spot lily but not coed she was hiding behind her social workers skirt obviously very scared.

"Hello all of you, come on in" Rachel said smiling.

Rosie stepped in first, she took her shoes off but didn't know where to put them down.

Rachel took them off her and put them down, giving Rosie another one of her smiles.

Rosie suddenly started to warm to Rachel, after all it wasn't very often people smiled at her.

Rosie stared around at Rachel's house, it really was massive, she couldn't believe she was going to live here now, but the thought of it seemed really exciting to her.

Lily was still stood behind Claire holding, not wanting to have to say anything yet.

"Come on dear don't be silly" Claire said sounding a bit impatient

"Why don't we go through to the kitchen" Rachel suggested both Claire and Rosie went through and Rachel followed them but realised lily still standing at the door, looking terrified.

"I'll just be two minutes joe will make us some coffee and the girls whatever they fancy"

Rachel turned back round and closed the kitchen door behind her.

Lily looked up and saw her coming towards her and immediately stepped back. This was the first time Rachel got to have a proper look at her, like her sister she was very pretty and she looked so cute but also looked a lot younger than 4.

Rachel crouched down beside her so she was on her level

"You want to come through to the kitchen with the others"

Lily didn't say anything just shook her head

"Well that's okay, I wouldn't want to sit with a bunch of boring adults too if i were you" Rachel said

Lily was surprised to hear her voice, it sounded so gentle and kind which was so unlike what she was used to.

"Are you feeling a bit frightened?" Rachel asked

Lily nodded her head this time but then stared at the floor

"That's okay, you know what? So am I, I've been so excited to meet you and your sister"

Lily still stayed silent but pulled her head up and looked at Rachel, her warm hazel eyes somehow made her feel a little more relaxed.

"I'm sure you already know this, but my names Rachel and my husbands joe, and your lily yes?"

Lily thought about just nodding her head again but then said "yes"

"Well that's a lovely name" Rachel said "so are you sure you don't want to come through with everyone, you don't have to talk much not if you don't want to"

"Okay" lily said

Rachel have her a warm smile before leading her through.

When she walked in she saw Claire and joe talking but Rosie was looking quite uncomfortable

"Girls you two go outside a moment i need to have a word with joe and Rachel" Claire said

"If you go Into the hall and to the right the living rooms in there out the tv on or whatever you fancy" joe said

The girls went out and found the living room.

"How are you two feeling? Still wanting to go ahead with everything"

"Of course, they both seem so lovely" Rachel said "I hope they'll be happy here, they both seem so frightened"

"Well you know what a bad past they've had, they've met very few adults they can trust. I'm just so happy they've got you, I mean finding people willing to take on two kids is rare enough let alone when they've got a past like they have"

"Those poor girls, neither of them have had much of a childhood have they?" Joe said

"No all they've known all there life is abuse, both physically and emotionally"

"What I can't understand is how anyone could ever treat them the way there parents did, I mean Lily's only been 4 a couple of weeks she's only a baby really" Rachel said

"It's all a horrible story so far for them, but what they've got now is an opportunity to turn that round"

"Well I hope we can help them do that" Rachel said "do you have any advice on how to make sure they feel at home here, I know these first few days will be hard when we're all getting to know one another but I just want to make sure they feel relaxed"

"Best advice I could give would be to make sure you try and make things as normal as possible, get into the routine of things straight away, but I know that'll be hard especially with little lily, they'll be times when she gets really upset, but don't push her into talking about things too much, just show her you're there if she does want to talk and ... Sorry this must sound so patronising"

"No not at all" joe said, after all both he and Rachel needed all the help they could possibly get.

"The main thing they need though, is love and I know you two can give that to them"

The three of them talked for quite a while and then Claire said her goodbyes and left them to it.

"You ready?" Joe asked

"Yeah, let's go and see them"

The two of them walked into the living room and saw the two of them sat on the sofa, lily was resting against her big sister, Rachel saw she was sucking her thumb however she pulled it out of her mouth as soon as she saw the two adults there so they both pretended they hadn't noticed.

"Hey you two" Rachel said going over and sitting on the edge of the sofa next to them and joe sat on one of the chairs

"Hi Rachel" Rosie said still sounding nervous

"you two okay"

"Yeah" Rosie answered

"I do understand how you both must be feeling, it must be really scary being somewhere new especially when you don't know anyone, but I really want you to make yourself at home here okay? So I thought me and joe could show you round a bit, just so you know where everything is, then we can have some hot chocolate and a chat"

Both Rosie and lily got up off the sofa and followed Rachel out.

"Do you want to grab your stuff and we can get rooms sorted so you can both get unpacked"

Rachel was surprised when she saw how little the bag was with there stuff in, she'd have expected them both to have suitcases but instead they just had a few little carrier bags, but she decided not to comment on this.

Rachel and joe showed them all downstairs and then went up to the first floor, both girls were amazed by just how big the house was.

"We've got quite a few spare rooms, there's two on this floor, and then two on the next floor up, mine and joes rooms on this floor just through there" Rachel said pointing "so we're never very fair away"

Rachel finished showing them round upstairs

"Rachel please can I sleep on the top floor" Rosie asked, she'd seen the room up there with it's own little bathroom and the big double bed and thought it would be really cool to be up there.

"Course you can Rosie" Rachel said "what about you Lily which room do you fancy?"

"The one near yours please" lily mumbled feeling all frightened again, but she thought if anyone tried to get her maybe if she was near Rachel and joe they'd stop them hurting her. Lily had never had a room of her own before she'd always shared a bed with Rosie and she was feeling a bit nervous about having to go to sleep all by herself.

"Okay then, that's that sorted then, right joe go and help Rosie unpack her stuff I'll help lily"

Rachel then walked into the room with lily, she couldn't believe that she was going to have this room all to herself, it was so pretty and it was massive, she looked at the double bed with the while quilt cover and rosebuds all over it and suddenly she started feeling really sleepy.

"I know it's a bit boring at the moment but we can soon make it all pretty girly"

"I don't want to change it" lily mumbled, it was the first thing she'd said without being asked something first.

"Well then that's what we'll do for now " Rachel Said

She turned her attention to the little bag and started taking out all her stuff, but the she realised how little she actually had.

"Do you not have any pyjamas love?"

Lily shook her little head again before saying "daddy never used to let me get them, he said they were a waste of money"

"Oh right okay, well I'm going to nip out and get you some now, it can get quite cold sometimes my house on a nighttime"

"I don't mind"

"Well I do, I'd rather not have you freezing cold"

Rachel continued to put away her stuff for her, while lily sat on the bed. Rachel knew how scared she must be, at 4 she was still really young so all this must seem so strange for her.

"How are you feeling love? You still a bit scared?"

Lily nodded her head

"Well there's no need to be scared you know, things are going to be strange to start with but before long everything will be fine, it'll seem like you've been here forever"

"I don't want to go home"

"You don't ever have to go back again"

"What if I'm naughty?"

"That doesn't matter sweetheart" Rachel said gently "no one here going to hurt you in anyway I promise"

"Really?"

"Yeah trust me"

Lily began to feel a bit more relaxed, but she still felt really scared and didn't know what to say.

"Right I'm going to nip to tesco, it's quite big and there's quite a lot of clothes there so we'll try and get you sorted with a few things, though we'll have to do a proper shop round town tomorrow for the pair of you" Rachel said, she hadn't seen what Rosie had packed but she thought it would probably be similar to her sister.

"You fancy a trip out with me or do you want to stay here with joe"

"Come with you"

"Okay well just give me 10 minutes, then we'll get going"

Lily stared around the room again but suddenly she felt tears form in her eyes, she didn't know why she just felt like everything was so strange.

She brushed them away before Rachel saw them, not wanting to get in trouble with her, she still felt really uncomfortable as she didn't know what to do or where to go, she felt really thirsty but she didn't want to ask for a drink.

"Have you had any tea yet love" Rachel asked

Lily shook her head, but at the moment she didn't feel hungry because she felt a bit sick

"Okay well we'll get something at tesco for us all to have, it'll be nice to have a chat with the two of you over dinner"

Rachel finished putting her stuff away before leaving, as soon as she left lily laid on her bed and tears started to pour down her face.

a few minutes later her door opened, at first she thought it was Rachel again, so she sat up and brushed her tears away but then she realised it was actually her sister.

when she saw lily crying, rosie rushed over to her and out her on her knee, shes always been like a mum to lily, despite still being so young herself.

"its okay lily"

"I'm scared"

"why? it seems so nice here, joes really funny he was making me laugh and Rachel seems so nice"

"I know"

"so why are you scared then?"

lily shrugged her shoulders not knowing how to explain properly

The two girls stayed together for a bit before deciding to go down.

They saw the two adults sat in the living room so went in.

"Hey you two, Rosie me and lily are going to head off to tesco for some stuff, do you fancy coming with us?"

"Yes please"

Once Rachel had finished her cup of coffee she got up and put her cup in the kitchen.

Lily was still really thirsty but she still didn't want to say, but she also needed to go to the toilet bur she didn't want to say this either, however in the end she realised she'd need to go or else she'd have an accident.

She got up and went through to the kitchen where Rachel was putting some things in the dishwasher however she stopped when she saw lily walk in.

"Hey love, you okay?"

"Please can I go to your toilet" lily asked sounding a bit scared

"Course you can, that's one thing you really don't need to ask permission for" Rachel said "do you remember where it was"

Lily nodded her head, before walking off.

Once she was done she came back into the kitchen

"Did you find it okay?"

Lily nodded her head

"Is there anything else you need"

"Please can I have a glass of water I'm really thirsty"

"I'll get you one now"

Rachel got a glass out and gave her some cold water, and lily gulped it down straight away.

"You must have been thirsty"

"I was"

"You should have said, honestly if you need anything you just come straight to me okay"

When lily had finished her drink the three of them got in the car, hoe decided to stay home as he didn't want the girl to feel overwhelmed by the two of them being there all the time and thought it would be nice for Rachel to get some time alone with them.

"Rachel is it true, that we can stay with you forever?" Rosie asked

"If that's what the two of you both want"

"It is" Rosie said smiling

"Good, like I said to lily, I know the first days will be strange but once you've both settled in I think we'll be really happy together"

They stayed quiet for a bit and they were all in there own little worlds for a while.

"So why don't the two of you tell me a bit about yourselves, the more we know about each other the better I think"i

"I like dancing" Rosie said

"Do you? Did you go to lessons"

"No" Rosie said going quiet again, she didn't really want to explain that they used to be really poor so couldn't afford anything like that

"Well I have a friend who runs a dance group maybe I could get you in there"

"Really, that'd be so good" Rosie said feeling really excited now

Lily stayed looking out the window, she hoped she wouldn't get asked anything because the sick feeling in her tummy had started to come back again and she didn't feel up to talking much.

Rachel glanced at lily in her mirror and realised she looked a bit upset again so decided to just leave her be.

"Gosh it's getting late" Rachel Said after looking at her watch and realising it was already 6:30 "what's your usual bedtime girls"

"I normally put lily to bed about 7:30"

"Okay well it's been a busy day for you both so when we get in, we'll have tea then I'll do you a bath lily before bedtime"

Rachel then parked the car up and her and the girls got out.

She took hold of Lily's small hand as they crossed the road, Rachel already felt so protective over her after all she was still so small.

Rachel went round and got some stuff for tea, as well as a few other bits and pieces before getting to the clothing isles.

"Right the pair of you need some pyjamas"

"Rachel we don't have any money" Rosie said feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Love I don't expect you to pay for stuff you know" Rachel said causing Rosie to smile.

The three of them picked out some quite nice things in the end, so Rachel went over and paid for everything before heading back to the car, she could tell lily was starting to get really tired now though, so she wanted to get home and get tea on as soon as possible.

Once they were home, Rachel immediately made a start on tea while joe started chatting to the girls.

As soon as tea was ready Rachel called them all through.

"There's quite a lot so just leave what you don't want".

Both girls tucked in straight away and the two of them finished up eating everything on there plate.

"You two must have been hungry" joe said laughing

The two girls got down from the table and put the plates by the dishwasher

"Should we go and get your bath run lily" Rachel said

Lily nodded so the two of them went upstairs and Rachel ran a bath and out loads of bubbles in it.

As soon as it was ready Rachel turned to lily expecting her to be ready to get in but she wasn't.

"Take your stuff off then love"

Lily reluctantly started to get undressed, it was only then Rachel saw all the scratches and bruises all over her body, Rachel had been given some background on the girls, and she knew about the abuse however it still nearly brought tears to her eyes when she saw, she couldn't imagine how anyone could do that to such a small child, it was no wonder lily was as scared as she was Rachel thought, she just wanted to wrap her arms round lily and keep her protected.

Rachel could sense how scared lily was that She was going to mention the marks.

"In you get then my love" Rachel said steadily

Lily climbed into the bath and the hot water relaxed her.

Rachel have her a few minutes just to relax before massaging shampoo into her head and then washing her body.

"You feeling sleepy?"

"Yes" lily Said, she was feeling very tired but she was also scared to go to sleep, it would be her first night by herself which was scary enough, but especially when she was in a new house where everything seemed so alien to her.

Rachel got her out the bath and wrapped a warm towel round her before going into her room and drying her hair off.

She then went and brushed her teeth and went to the toilet.

"Right come on then let's get you Into your pyjamas"

She then helped the little girl into the new pyjamas and lily then got into bed and Rachel leant on the headboard on the other side of the bed

"So do you reckon you'll be okay in here"

"Yes"

"Good, you look really tired so I'd imagine you'll go to sleep straight away, but if you can't just come down and give me or joe a shout and we'll come and sit with you until you can" Rachel said

"Okay"

"And remember my rooms just next door so if you need me at all during the night all you need to do is go through, it doesn't matter how late it is, just come and get me even if you just wake up feeling a bit upset" Rachel said knowing night times could sometimes be the times when you felt most alone and scared "I'll leave the landing light on and the bathroom light so of you need to go to the loo just get up and go don't feel you need to come and ask me or anything"

"Rachel I ..." Lily began but then she stopped herself

"What is it love?"

"Nothing it doesn't matter"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes"

"Okay well night, night then remember you need anything at all you come and get me don't feel scared"

"Thanks" lily said before turning over on her side.

Almost as soon as Rachel left lily started to cry again, she hated feeling like this, she was terrified that her dad was going to come in any second and hurt her again.

Rachel went downstairs and saw joe and Rosie chatting, she smiled when she saw the two of them

"Hey Rach" joe said

"Hiya, I've just out your sister to bed Rosie, she seemed a bit scared, do you think she'll be okay"

"I think so, she's nervous about sleeping on her own though, normally we share"

"Oh dear, well I told her any problems she should come and see me"

"I think she'll be fine she's probably too tired to worry much"

"I hope so, so how are you doing?"

"I'm okay, I like it here"

"Good because I really want the two of you to be happy" Rachel said

"So if there is anything you need just find one of us" joe added

"Thanks...you know for all this"

"It's okay sweetheart" Rachel said "do you fancy maybe putting a film on""

Rosie nodded so they went through to the living room and selected the film to watch.

The three of them sat on the sofa.

Rachel smiled this was something she'd wanted ever since her and joe got married, a proper family, it was perfect her sat watching movies with Rosie while lily was sound asleep upstairs-or so she thought, lily hadn't gone to sleep yet and was just tossing and turning.

They want he'd to the end of the film and then Rosie started to feel tired so she decided to go up to bed.

"I'll come up in a few minutes love" Rachel said

Once she was upstairs, Rachel wrapped her arms around joe

"This is perfect Rach"

"I know the two of them seem so lovely, I know they haven't had the best start, but I really feel we can give them everything they need"

"You're going to be such an amazing mum to them, they've taken to you so well already"

"I hope so, lily seems so upset and shy still"

"She'll soon settle in i promise"

Rachel and joe had another cup of coffee before heading upstairs.

"Should we check on the girls" joe asked

"Yeah I said I was going to come in and see Rosie but I forgot, come on let's go up"

The two of them went up to Rosie's bedroom and found her sitting up on her bed.

"It's about time you were going to sleep I think love, it's getting late" Rachel said "you are going to be alright up here aren't you? I feel bad leaving you on this floor by yourself"

"It's fine I like it" Rosie said

"Okay, well I'll get some stuff for your en suite tomorrow when we go to town"

"It's so cool having my own bathroom"

Rachel smiled at her "well I'm glad you like it, anyway come on it's time for sleep now"

"Night Rachel and joe" she said

The two of them then so as goodnight before going out.

"I'm just going to check Lily's gone to sleep okay, you go to bed I'll be a couple of minutes"

Rachel walked I to Lily's room.

When Rachel walked In lily tried to pretend to be asleep, however this was hard as she was still crying.

"Lily" Rachel said gently, as she was sure she'd heard crying

When she didn't get a response she edged closer to her and saw that her pillow was wet from all her tears and they were still pouring from her eyes.

"Hey" Rachel said "lily it's okay, sit up sweetheart"

Lily opened her eyes and sat up, and Rachel flicked on the light, but then lily just started crying even harder.

Rachel out her on her knee and rocked her "it's okay my love, you have a good cry if that's what you need"

Lily continued to cry into Rachel, it felt so strange especially since she hardly knew her but she couldn't seem to be able to help it.

Rachel rubbed her back and this seemed to help and eventually lily stopped her crying

Rachel stayed cuddling her for a bit and then Said "do you want to tell me what's upsetting you so much"

Lily shook her head

"Is it just because everything's all new and you're feeling a bit unsettled"

"Yes, sort of" lily said "I just got scared because I'm by myself"

"Do you not like being by yourself very much"

"No"

"You should have told me earlier, I don't like making you do things you don't like sweetheart, so what frightens you about being on your own"

"I'm scared people are going to come and get me"

"I promise you, here you're totally safe, nobody is going to harm you in anyway okay"

"Am I going to get hit for staying up late" lily sobbed terror evident in her voice

"No sweetheart, we don't hit anyone here okay, me and joe will never hurt you no matter what you do"

"Really?"

"Yes love I promise, I'll tell you what I can make you up a little bed In my room if you want, that's if you can put up with me and joe snoring" Rachel joked "but then you know you've got someone there"

Rachel didn't know what she was going to do in the long run about lily not being able to sleep on her own, but for now this seemed like a good solution.

Rachel got a load of blankets and cushions and got them on the floor in her room, there was enough room in her bed for lily to sleep in there, but she thought she might feel a bit uncomfortable in there.

She finished making her up a bed, though she didn't know how comfy it would be.

"What's wrong lily?" Joe asked feeling worried

"She's just a bit upset, she felt a bit scared being on her own"

"Oh dear, you're fine though no ones going to hurt you"

"I've said that to her, haven't I love?"

"Yes"

"Do you want to come in for a cuddle for a bit, before you go to sleep"

Lily nodded so got in beside Rachel.

Lily looked round the room, it was so big and pretty, then she saw a photo of a little baby on the wall.

"Who's that baby" lily asked

Rachel and joe exchanged glances

"That's my daughter love" Rachel said "when she was in my tummy she got very poorly, but when she came out they made her better, but then she got poorly again and she went up to heaven" she explained, she felt tears forming in her eyes like they always did when she talked about it,

Lily wrapped her arms round Rachel.

Rachel was really touched by this and cuddled her back.

"How long ago was it"

"It was 2 years ago love"

"What was her name"

"Do you know something? We were going to call her lily"

Lily continued to cuddle up to Rachel and Rachel stroked her hair, and just a few minutes later she fell asleep so Rachel lifted her down and put her on the made up bed, pleased to see her finally relaxed.

Please review would love to know what you think xxxxx


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Thanks for the reviews everyone, they mean so much xxxx

It was a Sunday afternoon A week had passed and despite a few upsets, and tears both girls seemed to be settling in okay, however lily still seemed really quiet at times. Rachel realised that she would have to get the girls settled in at a new school. Lily would be just going into reception so she shouldn't have too much to catch up on. Rachel knew it would be a bit harder for Rosie as she would be starting secondary school now, Rachel had been looking round and she'd narrowed it down to a few schools, she didn't really want to send Rosie to waterloo road thinking this would be a bit unfair on her.

Joe had been called away to work for the weekend so it was just Rachel and the girls at home, although she was missing joe, like she always did when he was away with work it was nice for her to have some time with the girls, just to herself.

Rachel was in the kitchen doing some baking when lily came in.

"Hello love, you fancy coming and giving me a hand I could really use one"

"Okay" lily said

"We best find you an apron then, don't want your clothes getting dirty"

Rachel found her an apron, but It was absolutely massive on her and when Rachel saw her she started laughing

"Careful you don't trip up on that love" Rachel said laughing

Rachel got lily putting the cases on the tray while she did the mixing.

They'd been in the kitchen a few minutes when lily said "please can I go to the toilet?"

"You need to stop asking me that, you really don't need my permission to go to the loo, just go"

Lily dashed off and Rachel sighed, she wished lily felt more relaxed around here and didn't always feel like she had to ask before she did anything.

When lily came back they carried on doing some baking.

"We're going to see about getting you into school tomorrow love" Rachel said wanting to have a chat to both Girls about school.

"I don't think I'll like school" lily mumbled

"I think you will sweetheart, you'll learn lots of new things and make loads of new friends what's not to like?"

Lily shrugged her shoulders but started biting her nails, over the week Rachel had began to notice she did this a lot when she was feeling a bit anxious about something.

Rachel gently took Lily's fingers out of her mouth and brought her face towards her

"What is it you don't think you'd like about school"

"I just don't really like new things"

"You're going to be fine I promise, it might be a bit hard at first but you'll soon get used to it, promise"

"But I don't know what to do there" lily said sounding small

"Well no one does until they learn" Rachel said smiling at her "trust me you're going to be just fine"

"But what if ..."

"Hey stop you're worrying okay"

Lily still felt really worried but decided not to say anything else, as it was obvious Rachel was going to make her go no matter how much she didn't want to.

They finished making the mixture for the cakes so put them in the oven.

"Once these are out I think we could all do with a trip out, maybe a walk down in Stanley woods"

"Okay" lily said.

As soon as the cakes were out Rachel made sure the girls had there coats on as it was cold outside and got them both in the car.

"I was just saying to lily, tomorrow we need to start getting you sorted In school"

"No" Rosie said instantly "I mean I don't need to go"

"What do you mean you don't need to go?" Rachel said laughing "of course you need to go to school"

"No I don't want to, I can just stay at home and look after the house"

"No you can't" Rachel sighed

It was sad for Rachel to think this is what Rosie must have been used to doing at home, she'd had so little of a childhood.

"We'll have a talk later, I've got a few brochures so you'll have to have a look through them, and I've made some calls so we can go and have a look round tomorrow at a few"

"Rachel what's school like?" Lily asked

"It's great you're going to love it"

"But what do you do there"

"Well it's something you'll go to everyday, probably till you're at least 16, and you learn lots of new things like, how to count and spell things and read, but you'll get lots of playtime too, so you can make lots of new friends" Rachel explained "and I'll drop you off at about 8:30 tomorrow so we can have a little look round, then you know you met my mum a couple of days ago"

"Yes" lily said

Rachel had thought it was important for the girls to get to know a lot of people quite quickly so everyone could get to know one another. Luckily both girls had taken really well to her mum and dad.

"Well she's going to come and pick you up at 3 and then you're going to go to her house for a bit then I'll pick you up"

"Why can't you pick me up"

"Well because as soon as Rosie gets sorted I've got to get back to work"

"What do you do at work?" Lily asked

"I'm a teacher at a big school love, well actually I'm the head-teacher there"

"What's that"

"It means I'm in charge"

"That sounds like someone scary" lily mumbled

Rachel laughed at this "well I'm not that scary am I?"

Lily shook her head.

Rachel decided to stop talking about school for now, as Rosie was just staying quiet and staring out the window so it was obvious she was quite worried about it and Rachel decided it was best if she just had a quiet talk with her later on.

When they were there, Rachel helped get lily out of her booster seat and then got her waterproof coat out the boot.

"We could have done with some wellies by the look of it girls"

The three of them started walking round and after a while they started to enjoy it, lily especially always found it easier to talk to people when she was walking instead of sat down.

"Rachel can I ask you something?" Rosie said sound a little apprehensive

"Of course you can love"

"Well why did you decide to you know... Adopt us"

Rachel thought about how she was going to answer this for a few seconds, before putting her arms round both the girls as they walked.

"What do you two girls want to do when you're older?"

Rosie looked at her wondering why she wasn't answering her question but said "I want to be a dancer"

"I'm not sure but I think I want to live with lots of animals" lily said causing the other two of laugh

"Well there you go see both of you know what you want to do already, and I knew right from when I was your age lily I wanted to be a mum and the two of you both know about my daughter ...well the thing is after she died I was told ..." Rachel said however she could feel tears beginning to for, in her eyes however she quickly brushed them away really hoping the girls hadn't seen "I was told I could never be a mum"

"Why not" lily asked

"Because a baby couldn't grow in my tummy love, so I decided I would adopt because what me and joe want more than anything else is a family"

They walked for a bit in silence all three of them in there own worlds.

"What do you girls fancy for tea tonight?" Rachel asked

"Can we have pasta" Rosie asked

"Yeah sure"

They walked on a bit further however Lily's little legs were starting to get really tired so they decided it was time to head back.

They were walking back when Rachel noticed lily starting to look a bit uncomfortable and walking strangely so guessed she needed to go to the toilet, but she couldn't see any, she began to get a bit worried as lily was quite desperate and after all she was only 4 so she couldn't hold on that long.

"Lily do you have to go to the toilet?" Rachel asked

Lily shook her head at first feeling embarrassed but then nodded

"Come with me, Rosie stay here love"

Rachel took Lily's hand and took her behind some bushes.

"Just go here, no one will see"

Lily was a bit reluctant but she didn't really have a choice, so just went.

"Come on then you"

Rachel took her hand again and they walked back up however when they were up there they saw Rosie wasn't there.

"Rosie" Rachel shouted getting really worried

She looked around and couldn't see her, but suddenly she heard someone crying behind one of the trees so rushed over and saw it was Rosie

"Hey, hey what's happened" Rachel asked

"There was a man" Rosie sobbed

"What man where?" Rachel asked

"He walked last but he looked scary and thought he was going to hurt me"

Rachel sighed before wrapping her arms around Rosie until she calmed down, there'd actually been a few instances like this with both girls, they were just so scared of getting hurt and most men seemed to scare them.

"It's okay, I'm sorry for leaving you but you're nice and safe I promise you my love"

"I'm sorry I just got scared"

"I know but trust me theres no need to be safe, I'm not going to let any harm come to you, I won't take you places that are scary or get you to meet up with people who are going to harm you, or ...well,anything that'll put you in danger, I promise okay"

"Okay" Rosie said

Lily's legs were hurting quite a lot now and she seemed really tired so Rachel picked her up and carried her back to the car, luckily she was really light so this wasn't too much of a struggle.

They'd been driving for a while when Rachel remembered she had to pick a few things up from tesco

"I've got to nip to tesco for a few things is that okay with you girls?"

"Yeah that's fine" Rosie replied

Rachel turned to face lily however she saw she was fast asleep.

"Bless her, she must be tired out"

"She normally has a nap about this time though, she gets really tired" Rosie explained

"Oh yeah I've noticed that, she was sat at the table yesterday while I was doing some cooking, anyway a few minutes later I turned round and she was fast asleep at the table"

Rosie laughed at this, often both Rachel and joe forgot how young lily was so she did have quite a lot of baby habits.

"Rachel" Rosie said feeling nervous

"Yeah?"

"Do I really have to go to school tomorrow"

"Yep" Rachel answered back

"Oh"

"We'll have a proper talk about it later love when your sisters in bed maybe"

Rosie didn't say anything else just stared out of the window, but already she started to feel a bit sick and nervous.

When they pulled up at tesco Rachel saw that lily was still fast asleep, and she was actually sucking her thumb. Rachel smiled at her, she really did look very cute, which made her feel awful waking her.

She opened the back door and gently stirred her awake

"Where am I?" Lily asked suddenly feeling scared and confused

"It's alright love you're just with me, we need to go to tesco remember"

Lily looked around and once she saw where she was and who she was with she calmed down

Rachel took hold of Lily's hand as they crossed the road and they walked Into the shop.

Lily was still quite tired so was quite clingy as they were walking round and didn't say much.

As they were walking round Rachel picked up everything she needed so started to head to the cash point

"Do you girls need anything?" Rachel asked

"No" Rosie replied

"Okay well come on then, let's go and pay"

Once they'd paid for there shopping they got back in the car and headed home.

Lily still seemed tired so Rachel out her on the sofa, she realised now that she was going to be starting school she'd need to get her into a proper routine, as she couldn't exactly be falling asleep all the way through school.

She decided to get on with some of her own work, as she realised she had a lot to catch up on. Rachel knew she'd have to have another talk with Rosie about school later, she'd tried bringing it up in the car earlier on the way back from tesco but it hadn't gone down too well.

Rachel was just looking over some of her emails when Rosie came into the room.

"Hey love what's up"

"What are periods, I saw this advert on tv and it was something to do with them"

"What you mean you've never heard of...I mean no ones ever had a talk to you about them" Rachel asked genuinely shocked afterall Rosie was 11 now

Rosie just shook her head

"Okay you and I need to have a little talk, come on let's go and sit down in your room"

Rachel didn't really know how to talk about this, and she felt a bit nervous but she knew, it did need to be done, she was just a bit unsure of what to actually say.

Once they'd gone into her room Rachel sat on her bed

"Come and sit down love,come on" Rachel said patting a space beside her

Feeling a bit confused Rosie went and sat down next to her

"Well you see, when you get older, though actually probably about the age your at now, there's all sorts of changes that go on"

"Oh"

"Do you think you can tell me what any of the changes are?"

Rosie could tell what Rachel was getting at but felt a bit embarrassed so shook, her head, cheeks flushing a bit

"Well the fact you're looking all embarrassed tells me you do, but if you don't want to say that's fine okay, I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable" Rachel said "but periods are just another type of change you have to go through, there something every woman has once a month and it's where you bleed a bit for a few days, from ... Well around where you go to the loo from"

"That sounds horrible"

"It's not too nice at first but you get used to it after a while"

"How old will I be?"

"It depends love, some girls are 11 some are 14 or 15"

"I hope I'm 14 or 15" Rosie said

Rachel smiled at this, she was glad she'd had that talk with her, burn she was so surprised someone else hadn't as even if someone at home hadn't talked to her about it, she knew they covered it in sex ed in year 6

"The thing is, when it does happen it's best you come and pull me aside and tell me about ... Love I really am surprised no ones talked about this with you before"

"Who's there to talk to though, my dad was too busy drinking and hitting us to sit down and talk about things"

"Okay fair enough not your dad but I'd have thought you'd have covered it in school, or one of your friends would have said something"

Rosie didn't say anything just shuffled and looked a little awkward, and all this made Rachel suspicious.

"So what was it like your old school?"

"Okay I guess"

"Did you have a favourite subject"

Rosie shrugged her shoulders and looked at the floor, determined not to make eye contact with Rachel.

"So what level did you get up to"

Rosie shrugged again but this time tears started to form In her eyes.

Rachel saw them and pulled Rosie into her chest and soon Rosie started crying properly.

"Hey, come on surely it can't be that bad" Rachel soothed

"It is"

"Okay tell me then"

"I've never been to school properly before" Rosie sobbed "my dad said he needed me at home"

"Oh sweetheart, why on earth didn't you just come and talk to me about it huh?"

"I thought you'd be mad, I really am sorry"

"Hey look at me Rosie" Rachel said bringing her chin up to face her "what are you sorry for?"

"I don't know" rosie mumbled

"You've nothing to feel sorry for I promise, at school there going it give you all the help they can get to bring you up to speed" Rachel said "so how much have learnt just at home and stuff?"

"Well I can read and write, and add up"

"Well that's a good start isn't is sweetheart, honestly it won't take long before you're at the same stage as the rest of them"

Rachel stayed talking to Rosie for quite a while and after Rosie felt quite a lot calmer about everything.

The two of them got up and Rachel decided to go and check on lily and then get some tea on.

Rachel went down and saw lily was still fast asleep on the sofa, she was sucking her thumb and snoring gently, Rachel knew she'd need to wake her now or she'd never get her off To sleep tonight.

Eventually she stirred

"Sorry darling, you ready to get up for me now though"

Lily opened her eyes and got up off the sofa, but she still felt tired

"Come and give me a little hand with tea "

Lily followed Rachel through and started helping her.

"After tea, it'll be a bath then bed, because I need you to get a good nights sleep because we've all got an early start tomorrow for school"

"I really don't want to go" lily mumbled

"Unfortunately that's not an option my love" Rachel sighed "don't worry you're going to be fine"

Lily didn't say anything else, but she remained quiet when she was helping Rachel with tea and all the time they were eating.

Rachel cleared up after tea and then ran Her a hot bubble bath.

Lily slid in, but still wasn't speaking much

"Lily what's troubling you so much about school love"

"I just don't want to go

"I bet you'll change your mind after tomorrow, try and trust me in this one"

"I bet I won't" lily mumbled

Rachel sighed but decided to ignore her, as there wasn't much point getting into a big discussion over it, when lily was so set against going.

"Gosh it's getting so late, where has the time gone tonight" Rachel said after glancing at her watch.

She finished getting lily bathed before getting her out and wrapping a towel around her.

She brought her through to her room and deride her hair off, before getting her into some pyjamas.

"Do you want to have a hot chocolate before bed?"

"Yes please"

"Okay you stay here and I'll bring you it up"

Rachel went down and made it and then brought it up to Lily, she found her sat in her bed still looking pretty worried

"Budge up"

Lily moved along so Rachel sat next to her as lily had her drink.

"Finished?'" She asked after a few minutes

Lily nodded so Rachel took it off her

"You go to the bathroom then I'll be up in a minute to tuck you in, are we going to try sleeping in your own room tonight like we agreed?" Rachel asked, she thought it was about time she got lily used to sleeping on her own, as she wanted to get her into a proper bedtime routine now she was starting school.

Lily nodded her head, but she was feeling really nervous about this too.

Rachel took Lily's cup downstairs and then went back up however she saw lily was still in the bathroom.

She gave her a couple of minutes but got a bit worried so went to check on her.

"Lily are you nearly done in there love?"

Lily didn't respond but came out, however when she did she looked a bit pale and worried

"Is everything alright lily"

"Yes"

Rachel took her hand and led her through to her room and began to tuck her in.

"Now you try and go to sleep, but if there's anything you need just come and get me okay"

"Rachel I don't want to sleep on my own" lily mumbled

"I know love but just give it a try" Rachel said, she then bent down and kissed her on the cheek before turning the light off.

Rachel went down and sat with Rosie for a few hours before heading off to go in the bath.

Rachel loved having her baths on a Sunday night, as it was the one time she felt she could properly relax.

After about half an hour she wrapped a towel round herself and got out, but when she opened the door she saw lily stood crying

"Hey what's happened lily"

"I can't sleep again" lily sobbed

"Well why didn't you come and get me then?"

"Because you said I had to sleep by myself"

"I didn't say you had to sit in bed getting all upset did I love?"

"No but I thought you'd be angry"

"Well then you thought wrong, why can't you sleep"

Lily didn't say anything just continued to cry

"Come on, come with me into my room, but lily we really do need to try and out a stop to this"

Rachel took lily through

"Are you okay sleeping with me on my bed?"

"Yeah" lily said

"Okay well you get in, I just need to nip to my bathroom to get changed, I won't be long"

Rachel grabbed her pyjamas from under her pillow and went to her bathroom

When she was out she saw lily sat on her bed looking a lot more relaxed.

Rachel got in next to her

"You still worrying about school?"

"A bit" lily admitted

"Is that art of the reason why you couldn't sleep?"

"Yes" lily said

"Oh love, you've got to stop all this worrying, I really do mean it when I say everything is going to be just fine"

"I know"

"Honestly you're going to really enjoy it when you're there"

"I hope I do"

"And you mustn't be scared when you're there about asking for things okay, if you're struggling at all, or need a drink, or you need to go to the loo even all you need to do is ask, so you're not to worry about anything okay"

"Okay thank you Rachel" lily said

"Do you reckon you're ready to go to sleep now"

"Yes" lily said "I'm going to try and sleep in my own bed"

"Really, well in be very proud of you if you managed it, that's a very grown up thing to say"

Lily jumped out of Rachel's bed

"Just come and get me though if you can't sleep"

Lily walked to her room and got into bed and surprisingly fell asleep straight away.

Rachel woke up early the next morning, she was taking the morning off to get the girls sorted but planned to go back this afternoon.

Once she was dressed she woke Rosie and then went and woke lily.

The morning seemed to pass quickly although both girls were still quite apprehensive.

Rachel rounded them up in the car,she had to get lily sorted first so drove to the local primary school.

"Rosie we shouldn't be longer than about 15 minutes but it's up to you whether you come in or not"

"I'll wait here"

Rachel got lily out and walked down with her, but she could tell lily was still really nervous

They walked into the office and Rachel waited at the desk

"Hello how can I help" the receptionist asked

"Hi I enrolled lily a few days ago, today's her first day, I have a 8:45 appointment with mrs Walsh"

"Yes I'll see if she's available now"

"Who's mrs Walsh"

"She's your headteacher I think"

A few minutes later mrs Walsh appeared Rachel shook her hand and smiled at her

"Hi you must be lily" she said smiling.

"Yes"

"Come with me let's go along to your classroom"

Lily started to warm to her a bit, so felt a bit more relaxed following her.

Rachel and lily followed her along to the reception classroom

"As you can see it's a small class so I'm sure you'll have no problem settling in"

Lily looked round at the big colourful classroom and decided she quite liked it.

Rachel stayed with her a few minutes but lily quickly seemed to relax.

Rachel was so relieved to see her settling in, when she left she felt so much more comfortable leaving her than she thought she would have

"Is she okay" Rosie asked when Rachel got back in

"Oh yeah she's fine, come in love let's have a look round your school now"

"I thought we were going to look round a few"

"Well to be honest love, if they've got a place here, it's by far the best one I can get you in to"

A few minutes later they arrived at the school.

Like lily had been Rosie was scared at first but quickly decided she really liked the look of it, so Rachel enrolled her there.

Although Rachel was almost as nervous as the girls about leaving them she was so glad they finally seemed to be getting everything organised

Please review xxxxx


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The end of the day had finally come around and Rachel was feeling really nervous about picking the girls up, she really hoped today had gone okay for them. She'd found out that Rosie's school finished a bit later than she'd expected, which is some ways was good as if meant she could go and pick her up herself, but she still needed to pick lily up from her mums house.

Rachel picked up her coat and bag before going out to the car and driving to the school. She'd arranged to meet Rosie at the front gate, she really hoped she'd remembered as Rosie didn't have a mobile and Rachel hadn't got round to buying her one yet, though she was planning to soon, but this meant that If Rosie forgot she wouldn't be able to get in touch with her.

Luckily about 5 minutes later Rachel saw Rosie, she was so relieved when she saw she was with a group of girls and had a big smile on her face.

"Hiya love, how was your first day?" Rachel asked

"It was so good, everyone was really nice, some of the girls in my class asked if I could go out with them tonight"

"Go out where?"

"Just out" Rosie replied

Rachel sighed she didn't really like the sound of this, the thought of Rosie just hanging round places wasn't something that particularly appealed to her, however she also didn't want to stop her settling in and meeting up with some of the girls in her year, as she thought it would do her a lot of good.

"Okay I guess that's fine, are you sure you'll be able to find you're way back to the house though"

"Yeah it's pretty hard to get lost round here"

"Right, well take my mobile with you, then that way I can ring you on the house phone if there's any problems and you can ring me" Rachel said

"Okay"

Rachel then rummaged round in her bag and found her mobile.

"You ring me if there's any problems"

"I will do"

"See you later then, I want you home no later than 6:30"

Rosie then wrapped her arms round Rachel and gave her a quick hug.

Rachel smiled at her as she walked off, it was so nice to see her so happy and was such a relief for Rachel knowing everything at school had gone okay.

She then walked back in her car and drive to her mums house,

When she was waking up the drive, Rachel saw lily through the window laid down on her mums sofa looking a bit down, she really hoped that her first day had gone okay too.

Rachel knocked at the door, however her mum had pretty bad hearing so she didn't always answer, when she didn't get an an answer Rachel tried the door and realised it was open.

"Hiya mum" Rachel said walking into the kitchen

"Hello love, how was your day"

"Okay thanks, how does lily seem"

"She's been really quiet actually, and a little bit teary, but that might be because she's tired"

"Oh dear, that's doesn't sound great, I'd better go and have a word" Rachel said

She walked into the living room and crouched down next to lily

"Hey love, how was your first day"

"Okay" lily said quietly

"Just okay?" Rachel asked, it was pretty easy to tell when lily was feeling upset about something and Rachel could tell she definitely was now

Lily didn't say anything else just stared off into space

"What sort of things did you get up to?"

"Just stuff" lily said

Rachel could tell something must have happened, however she also knew how hard lily would sometimes find it to talk about things

"Lily has something happened sweetheart?"

"No"

Rachel sat down beside her and out an arm round her supportively, she was feeling pretty worried about lily as already she felt so protective over her and hated seeing her upset.

"You seemed so happy when I dropped you off earlier love, and you certainly don't seem the same way now" Rachel said "so do you want to tell me what's happened to make you feel differently"

"I don't feel very well"

"How don't you feel well"

"I've good a poorly tummy and my head hurts" lily said

Rachel didn't know whether to believe her not, after all it could be possible that lily was just feeling a bit rotten and this would obviously make her feel a bit upset,

"Okay love, well when we get home have a little lie down yeah?"

Lily nodded, Rachel gave her a quick squeeze before getting up off the sofa and going into the kitchen with her mum

"She said she feels poorly" Rachel said

"Do you believe her"

"I'm not entirely sure" Rachel sighed "anyway I'll take her home now, thanks so much for looking after her"

"It's my pleasure"

Rachel and lily then both said goodbye before getting in Rachel's car.

"Where's Rosie?" Lily asked

"She's gown out with some friends she met at school today, but she shouldn't be home too late"

"When's joe back"

"Tomorrow love"

Lily gave a little smile, she really was looking forward to seeing joe again, she'd already grown quite attached and close to him like she had Rachel.

They were about half way back when Rachel noticed lily had started crying, although she kept trying to brush her tears away.

Rachel felt quite worried so pulled in.

"Sweetheart what's happened huh?"

"I feel really sick"

"Are you sure that's all?" Rachel asked thinking there was probably more to it than this

"Yes"

"Well when we get in why don't you get straight into your pyjamas so you can get all comfy"

"Okay" lily said while trying to brush her tears away.

Once they were home Rachel took lily upstairs and sat her down on her bed, while she found her some fresh pyjamas. She then got her changed out of her clothes.

"Do you want to have a lie down up here or downstairs love"

"Have a lie down in here"

"Okay, well you get yourself all nice and comfy, and I'll bring you up a hot water bottle and some water, we'll see if those help before I give you any calpol"

Rachel smiled at her, before walking downstairs and getting her the hot water bottle and water.

When she went back up to Lily's room she saw she was crying again

"Oh dear you really aren't having a good day are you my love"

"I just feel poorly"

Rachel handed her the water and lily sipped it, before putting it on the little table next to her bed.

Lily then turned on her side to get all comfy and Rachel sat on the edge of her bed

"Lily, I know you haven't known me very long and In some ways that might make it really hard for you to feel like you can trust me with things, but I just want you to know if ever you did fancy a little chat about something, then I'm here, even if it's just that you want someone to listen to you, it's just I really don't like to think something's bothering you and what I don't want Is to feel like you have no one to talk to about it"

"I'm fine nothing's bothering me"

"Good because if something ever does start to bother you, you come straight to me yes? You mustn't ever feel frightened of anyone, I promise if ever you did need a chat I wouldn't get mad or anything like that you know"

"I'm okay"

"Right well you have a little rest, you must be pretty tired anyway, so shout if you need anything"

Rachel was about to get up and leave but then she decided to stay with lily for a bit

"I'll tell you what, why don't we read a story for a little while, that always used to help me when I was a little girl"

Lily liked the sound of this so Rachel went over and picked out one of Lily's books and laid down next to her in bed

Rachel had been reading for a few minutes, suddenly lily felt herself getting really tired, the sound of Rachel reading to her relaxed her a lot

It didn't take long for lily to drift off to sleep.

Suddenly Rachel heard lily snoring gently, Rachel smiled and out the book down before going downstairs.

She got in with some Ironing and some other house jobs, for an hour or so.

It was only then that she realised it was almost 6:30, she really hoped Rosie would be back soon, as she didn't really want to have to tell her off for being late back.

As tea was just about ready she decided to go and check up on lily and try and wake her.

When Rachel got to her room she realised she want in there, but saw the bathroom door was closed so presumed she'd just woken up and gone in there.

She went into her bedroom and took the phone in there and tried ringing Rosie just to check she was nearly back home, however there was no answer, so she just left a message.

Rachel sighed, before getting up, as she knew she needed to get tea out, however she saw the bathroom door was still closed so she decided to check lily was okay .

"Lily is everything okay in there love?" Rachel asked

When she didn't get a response she said "are you just on the loo?"

"Yeah" lily mumbled

"Okay well come down and have your tea when you're finished"

Rachel went downstairs and got three plates out

She tried ringing Rosie again as she was about 10 minutes late now, however still she didn't get an answer.

Lily came down a couple of minutes later still looking quite upset

"Are you okay lily?"

"No" lily said "I really feel poorly"

"How exactly do you feel poorly?"

"I've got a poorly tummy"

"So do you feel like you're going to be sick, or is it just aching a bit"

"Both"

Rachel sighed she really couldn't tell if lily was telling the truth or not, but either way she was beginning to get quite concerned about her.

"Well some tea might help you know love, give it a try yeah"

Lily sat down at the table and started eating.

Rachel glanced at the clock and saw it was 7

"Gosh where on earth has your sister got to huh"

"Are you angry with her?"

"A little bit" Rachel said.

She was feeling pretty annoyed with Rosie as she didn't expect she'd be this late home, and she couldn't really let her off but she was also quite worried about her.

"Are you going to shout at her"

"Maybe we'll have to see what her excuse is won't we?"

about 10 more minutes passed and Rachel was pleased to see lily had eaten most of her dinner

"You feeling a bit better now love"

Like shook her head

"Well I'll finish clearing up then maybe you should have an early night"

"Okay"

Rachel cleared away the table . She was really relieved when about 5 minutes later she heard the front door open.

"Where have you been Rosie it's 7:30" Rachel said

"Just out round the park and places" Rosie said

She started to head upstairs to her room but Rachel quickly stopped her

"Hang on, I'm talking to you"

"I haven't done anything wrong though?"

"Erm you've come home an hour later than I asked you too, I'd say that was pretty wrong"

"Well I thought you wouldn't mind"

"Well then you thought wrong" Rachel said beginning to get quite angry about the fact she didn't seem at all bothered! she didn't want to start to shout at her, but she could tell she was going to loose her temper If she carried on like this

"Okay but I'm home now"

"Well that's not good enough is it?"

"For gods sake what's the problem"

"Hey don't talk to me like that, you need to tell me exactly why you're so late"

"Well all the others were out still"

"And that's your excuse is it" Rachel said her voice suddenly sounding quite angry "when I ask you to be back for a specific time, I expect you to keep a track of the time and be back exactly when I ask is that clear?"

"Why are you shouting, it's not like I got into trouble at the park"

"That's not the point, it's the fact you've deliberately gone against what I said, do you think that's acceptable?"

"But..."

"But nothing, you haven't seen my strict side yet, but believe me you come back late again and you're going to see it, now go to your room we'll talk about it later" Rachel said "and you better think up a good excuse as to why you didn't answer the phone when I rang it about 15 times"

Rosie didn't say anything else just went up to her room, she honestly didn't think she'd get into trouble, but she hated the fact Rachel had got angry with her and it made her feel quite scared.

Rachel sighed before going upstairs and into Lily's room

"Lily should we get you tucked in now, we won't bother with a bath tonight"

"Can I sleep in your bed?" Lily asked sounding nervous

"Darling you did so well by yourself last night, give it another try for me"

Rachel helped her out of her clothes and got her into some pyjamas

"Have you brushed your teeth"

"Yeah I did it when you were downstairs"

"Good girl, have you been to the toilet?"

Lily shook her head

"Might be an idea to go then, I'll wait here for you"

Lily quickly went to the toilet and then got into bed

Rachel tucked her in and said goodnight, she was about to turn off the light when lily stopped her

"Rachel I don't think I'll be able to go to school tomorrow"

"And whys that"

"Because I'm poorly remember"

"I think you'll be better by the morning"

To her surprise lily then started crying

"Hey sweetheart what's wrong?" Rachel asked wondering what had brought this on all of a sudden

Rachel sighed before going over and getting in her bed next to her as lily continued to cry

"Shh it's alright love don't cry" Rachel soothed

"I..can't ..go tomorrow" lily said between sobs

"Okay you just calm down a bit for me, then we're going to have a chat"

Rachel for her a glass of water and lily sipped it.

"Good girl" Rachel said once lily had calmed herself down a bit. "Tell me what's gone on my love"

"I really don't want to go to school"

"Okay why?"

"It was good at first but then I wanted to go home because I got all tired so I asked if I could but they said they can't just send me home for no reason"

"Well there right"

"But then they started talking about families and all the others were talking about all the nice things they did with there mummy and there daddy's and I never did anything like that with mine, and then when I had to say, I told them I didn't have a mummy or daddy anymore and they started laughing and this own girl was being really mean so I hit her and then the teacher got angry and told me I had to wait outside but then I ran away and hid but she found me"

"Oh love" Rachel sighed "gosh it sounds like you haven't had a very good day"

"Are you angry?" Lily asked

"No but lily hitting people is never the right thing to do, no matter how much someone's upsetting you"

"Are you going to hit me?" Lily asked sounding scared

Rachel sighed and wrapped her arms around lily

"I think that would kind of go against what I just said wouldn't it?" Rachel said "no love I'm not going to hit you, I've told you we don't hit anyone in this house no matter what and you must never ever be afraid of me or joe hurting you"

"But my daddy used to hit me all the time and no one shouted at him so I didn't know it was wrong"

"Love what your dad used to do to you was absolutely horrific and it was very, very wrong"

"He said he was reaching me a lesson and then I'd get scared sometimes and I'd cry but that made him more angry"

Rachel didn't know what to say lily had never really spoked about her dad before, not properly anyway

"How did it used to make you feel when he hit you?" Rachel asked gently

"It used to hurt loads and I'd feel frightened" lily sobbed

"So that's why hitting people is never the answer because you don't want to make other people feel frightened do you love?"

"No"

"I'm sorry today didn't work out better for you love, but tomorrow will be different"

"But what if there talking about mummy and daddy's again"

"Well first thing tomorrow morning I'm going to have a little talk with your teacher okay, just so she knows your situation"

"Okay" lily said

"I'm really pleased you told me what had happened lily, because I hate to think of you all upset"

"I wanted to tell you before,I was just scared" lily said

"Don't feel scared of me love, I really don't want you to be"

Lily pulled away from Rachel and got back into bed.

"Is Rosie in trouble with you?"

"Don't you worry about Rosie she's fine" Rachel said "now considering this was meant to be an early night it's finished up being pretty late hasn't it?"

"I'm tired now"

"Good, well I'll stay a couple of minutes until you drop off"

Lily got comfy in bed and Rachel started stroking her hair, this seemed to relax lily quite a lot and within just a few minutes she'd fallen fast asleep.

Rachel kissed her gently on the forehead before creeping out.

She decided to go and check on Rosie, so walked up the stairs and knocked on her bedroom door.

"Yeah?"

"It's Rachel can I come in?"

"Okay"

When Rachel went in she could tell straight away that Rosie must have been crying

"I'm sorry if you thought I was being too harsh on you earlier, but I was just a little bit annoyed"

"I know I'm really sorry for making you angry, it's just my dad never used to care what time I stayed out till, so I didn't think you would"

"Well I do, love I'm not your dad okay, by the sounds of what you and your sister have been saying we do things very differently"

"I'm so sorry"

"Let's just forget it even happened" Rachel said "I won't mention it again but next time make sure that you're in on time"

"That's it?" Rosie asked thinking Rachel was going to go on at her a lot longer than that

"That's it" Rachel said smiling "now seen as you haven't had any tea, why don't we call out for a pizza or something love"

"Yeah that'd be really nice"

"Come on then let's go down"

The two of them walked downstairs together and Rachel ordered Rosie a pizza.

They decided to out the tv on while they were waiting for it.

"I didn't get much chance to talk to you about school earlier, how was it?"

"Really good, I can't believe how nice everyone was to me, and even the lessons were okay too, like I wasn't amazing or anything but I was sort of getting all the stuff they were saying"

"Well that's fantastic love, see I told you it would be alright"

They stayed chatting for a bit when suddenly there was a knock at the door

"That'll be the pizza, I'll get it"

Rachel went to the front door and quickly paid for the pizza before going back into the living room

"Do you want me to take it through to the kitchen"

"No it's alright, just be careful not to get any on my sofa"

A couple of minutes later lily appeared in the living room

"And what are you doing out of bed young lady, I thought you were fast asleep, you looked lovely and comfy when I saw you"

"I heard a knock at the door and I got scared"

"It was just the pizza man love, nothing to be scared of" Rachel said "come on I'll take you back up"

Rachel led lily back upstairs and started heading to her room

"I need a wee" lily said

"Well you go to the loo then and I'll wait in your bedroom for you"

Once lily had come back Rachel tucked her up and made sure she went back to sleep okay.

She then went down and spent a bit longer with Rosie, but then sent her off to bed at about 9:15 as she had school the next day so didn't want her up too late.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Set about 3 weeks later

It was a Friday and the girls seemed to have settled into school reasonably well now. Joe had picked both girls up as Rachel had a meeting so had to stay at school late, she hated having meeting on a Friday normally as she just liked to go home and relax however she couldn't really avoid it.

Rachel and joe were going out for a meal tonight so joes mum-Janet was looking after them both

The girls and joe had been home about an hour when Rachel finally arrived home.

"Hiya Rach" joe said immediately coming over and hugging her

Rachel wrapped her Arms around him and leaned Into kiss him however they were interrupted by lily coming in and laughing

"And what are you laughing at missus" joe said picking her up in the air and kissing her too

Like didn't say anything just continued to laugh. Joe put her down on the floor so Rachel bent down and gave her a big hug

"How was your school today my love"

"It was really good and Sammy asked me to come round hers for tea tomorrow night and she have me her mummy's number to give to you so you can ring her mummy"

"Well that'll be fun won't it? I'll give her a ring in a little while" Rachel said

She then went upstairs to change out of her work stuff however lily came up with her.

"Can I come and sit in your room with you"

"Well I'm only going in to get changed love, but you can sit on my bed while I do that"

Rachel had planned to have a shower before she went out however her meeting had overrun so now she didn't have time.

The restaurant they were going to was quite posh so Rachel wanted to dress up a little bit, so had decided to wear her black pencil skirt with a blue lacy blouse.

She quickly took off her work things and put on her new outfit

"You look so pretty" lily said when Rachel had finished getting changed

"Aw thank you darling, are you sure you want to stop in her while I do my hair and stuff, you might get a bit bored"

"No I like watching"

"Okay then" Rachel said laughing

She sat down at her dressing table and watched as Rachel curled her hair

"Rachel I need to tell you something" lily said about 10 minutes later suddenly sounding quite serious

Hearing this Rachel put down her curling tongs and turned to face her, despite looking pretty silly with just one half of her hair curled

"What is it darling?"

"I've done something a bit bad" lily admitted "I didn't mean to though"

"What have you done love?"

"I lied at school today, to Sammy and some of the others"

"About what lily?"

"I told them that you were my mum" lily admitted

Rachel sighed she went and sat next to her on the bed

"Why did you say that love?" Rachel asked gently though she actually had a pretty good idea about why she might have said something like this.

"Because I didn't want them to think I was different to them, I know I shouldn't have done it, but I couldn't help it" lily said as tears started to form in her eyes

"Okay lily I get it" Rachel said "no I really do get it, but the thing is not having a mum is nothing to be ashamed of you know"

"But its like here it's really nice and you're really nice too and so joe, so I thought if I said you were my mum, they'd think I was nice too"

"Oh love" Rachel sighed putting her arm round "you don't need me or joe to make people think you're nice, you're the loveliest little girl I've ever met"

"Sammy will tell everyone I'm a liar, when you ring her mum"

"She won't darling and you know why?"

"Because I'm not going to tell her mum"

"Really" lily said sounding surprised

Rachel knew how odd it must feel for lily knowing that all the other kids around her had mum and she didn't and she really did want to make sure she settled in as best she could.

A couple of minutes later Rachel started curling her hair again

"I wish I did have a mum" lily said "Rachel one day will you be my mum?"

"Darling I want to be your mum more than anything in the whole world, but I know at the moment I probably don't feel much like a mum, Because you haven't known me that long, but hopefully one day I will"

"What so you mean I'll even be allowed to call you mum and stuff"

"Lily it's not about being allowed to call me mum, you can do that if and when you feel comfortable, which might be in a few weeks, or a few months or even a few years or maybe it's just something you'd never want to call me, and you know what that's fine too my love, the most important thing is that you feel happy and safe here and if ever you do feel sad and upset you feel there's people around who you feel safe enough to come to"

"I really love it here, everyone's kind to me"

"Well I love having you here darling"

Rachel and lily carried on chatting for a bit until Rachel had finished doing her makeup, so they both went downstairs.

"Wow you look gorgeous Rach" joe said

"Thanks you're not looking too bad yourself"

It was only then that Rachel realised she hadn't said a proper hello to Rosie yet, so she nipped up to her room

"Hiya love"

Rachel noticed that Rosie was looking a little bit upset so sat down on the bed next to her

"Hi Rachel" Rosie said, she looked at Rachel properly it seemed really strange seeing her all dressed up she looked really glamorous and young "you look so nice"

"Aw thanks sweet, Sorry I've not been in to say hello yet, how's your day been?" Rachel asked

"Okay" Rosie replied "I really don't feel well though"

"Really, what's wrong with you love?" Rachel asked

When she looked at Rosie properly she could see she was quite pale and looked really tired

"I feel really headachy and sick"

"Oh dear I hope you're not coming down with something" Rachel sighed "come downstairs I'll get you some medicine, you're not allergic to paracetamol are you?"

"No" Rosie replied

Rachel and Rosie both went downstairs and Rachel went to the medicine cupboard and got her out some tablets and then got her a glass of water.

"Take it easy tonight love okay"

"Yeah" Rosie said

A few minutes later there was a knock at the door so Rachel opened it and saw Janet stood there

"Hello" Rachel said smiling at her

Janet and Rachel had always got on so well, and they often saw quite a bit of each other.

"Hiya Rach, don't you look nice"

"Thankyou" Rachel said before going over and giving Janet a hug

"Are you off then?"

"Yep, thanks so much for looking after the girls for me"

"That's no problem, so remind me again what's there nighttime routine"

"Well lily needs a bath about 6ish and ideally in bed no later by 7;30 and .."

"7:30 that's early" jan remarked

"She's only just turned 4 you know, she's still a baby really" Rachel said laughing "make sure she goes to the loo and brushes her teeth before bed though, because she won't unless you remind her and Rosie's feeling a little bit under the weather so she might not go to bed that late, but it's normally best she's in bed by around twenty past 9 but seeing as it's not a school night it's not that important"

"Okay, I think we'll be fine you two go and enjoy you're night"

"Well thanks again for looking after them, ring me if there's any problems at all"

"Will do, go on have a nice time"

Joe and Rachel quickly said goodbye to the girls and jan before heading off out.

"Hiya you two" jan said wailing into the living room where the girls were

Lily smiled when she saw jan standing there, she'd met her quite a few times now so she didn't feel that shy around her and she really did like her

"Hello" lily said

Jan went over and sat next to her and lily snuggled into her.

"How are you dear?" Jan asked

"I'm okay" lily replied

"Good so do you girls fancy sticking a film on, I've got some sweets"

Lily liked the sound of this, so they had a rummage through all the DVDs Rachel and joe had and eventually found on they all wanted to watch so out it on

Jan got the sweets out for them all, from the bag she'd brought with her

"I'm okay thanks" Rosie said as she still felt pretty awful

"Oh yeah Rach said you weren't feeling well, did she give you some medicine"

"Yeah"

"Well hopefully that'll kick in soon"

They'd been watching for about Half an hour when suddenly Rosie began to feel even worse

"Jan I really don't feel well" Rosie said sounding sorry for herself "is it okay if I go to bed"

"Yeah that's fine, I'll pause this and take you up"

Jan paused the film and walked up with Rosie, leaving lily downstairs.

Rosie got into her comfy Pyjamas before going into the bathroom

When she came out jan got her into bed and tucked her in

"You're definitely best off being in bed aren't you? When you're feeling poorly"

Rosie nodded her head as a tear rolled down her cheek, as she really didn't feel very well now

"Don't you cry love, you'll feel better after a good sleep I promise"

Jan stayed with Rosie until she dropped off and then went back downstairs.

Her and lily finished watching the movie together however it was only after it had finished jan realised it was already 7:45 and she hadn't even given lily her bath

She dashed her upstairs and quickly ran a bath before getting her in.

Jan somehow managed to have Lily bathed, hair dried and into pyjamas in about 15 minutes

"Go and brush your teeth"

Lily quickly went into the bathroom and brushed her teeth before going into her room, feeling e

really tired now

"Did you go for a wee too"

"Yes" lily lied, she'd forgotten to go but she knew jan would make her go back but she was feeling really sleepy so didn't want to

"Into bed then"

Jan tucked lily and said goodnight

"And absolutely no messing about and getting out if bed or there will be trouble"

Jan went downstairs and did some tidying however she finished up sitting on the sofa and falling asleep.

Lily woke up at about 10 she was desperate for a wee but didn't want to get up because jan had told her not to and she didn't want to get into trouble, she tried to go back to sleep however she couldn't because she was dying for the loo.

Suddenly lily began to get a bit teary because she was missing Rachel already and was worried because she thought it seemed really late and began to wonder if Rachel had left her

about 10 minutes later Rachel and joe came back in, jan had just woke up from her nap so went and said hello and asked about there night however she wanted to get home so didn't stop long.

"Do you fancy a coffee before bed Rach?" Joe asked

"Sure I'm just going to nip and check on the girls"

Lily could hear someone coming up the stairs she got really worried as she thought they might be angry with her for still being awake however she was also worried because she was absolutely bursting for the toilet and didn't think she'd be able to hold in much longer.

Rachel went into Lily's room, she was sure she could hear her crying so flicked on the light and saw she was sat up crying

"Lily what's up love, what are you doing awake?"

"I really, really need a wee" lily cried

"We'll go on then, you know where the bathroom is"

Lily immediately got up and raced to the bathroom and luckily just about made it there

Rachel walked in

"Is everything okay love did you make it"

"Yeah"

"You looked like you were desperate" Rachel said once they were back in Lily's bedroom

"I was, I woke up a while ago but I didn't want to go because jan said she'd be angry if she heard me get out of bed"

"Oh love she didn't mean you couldn't get up to go to the loo, she just didn't want you messing round with toys or anything, you know you're allowed to go for a wee or get a drink and things like that if you need to"

"I thought you'd left me and you weren't coming back" lily said

"No love, I'd never leave you" Rachel sighed "it's definitely time for you to go to sleep now though my love"

"Okay " lily said "night Rachel love you"

The last part made Rachel a little shocked, she didn't know If lily had meant to say it or it had just come out because she was tired and wasn't thinking what she was saying, but Rachel smiled anyway it made her feel all warm inside hearing lily say this.

"Goodnight darling I love you" Rachel whispered

Rachel then got up and left before going upstairs to check on Rosie

When she went in she saw she was asleep, however she woke up when Rachel came in so she can't have been in that deep sleep

"Sorry Rosie I didn't mean to wake you, how are you feeling?"

"I still feel really awful" Rosie said beginning to cry

"Oh dear, do you want me to bring you anything?"

"No thankyou, I'll go back to sleep"

"Okay love"

Rachel stayed with her for a few more minutes before going back downstairs to see joe.

Joe and Rachel stayed down for a bit however they were both feeling tired so decided to go to bed

Rosie woke up about 12 she was still feeling really bad but this time it was even worse, she staggered downstairs as she wanted to get a drink.

Rachel had heard someone get up and go down, so she wrapped her dressing gown round herself and went downstairs

Rosie gulped her drink down however this seemed to make her worse and she had to dart to the downstairs toilet.

Rachel saw her rushing to the loo so followed her in and saw her being violently sick.

She rushed over and held her hair back

When she was finished, Rachel flushed the toilet, Rosie was covered in sweat and tears were streaming down her face, she started to shiver quite a lot too.

"Oh you poor thing" Rachel said.

She put the lid down on the toilet seat and Rosie sat down as she continued to cry

After a few minutes Rachel got her up and lead her to the back room, where she sat down on the sofa with her.

Rosie collapsed into her chest and began to cry again.

"Shh it's alright darling" Rachel whispered

Joe had woken up and realised that Rachel wasn't in bed, so went downstairs and saw her sat with Rosie, and realised Rosie was crying into her chest

"Rosie what's wrong what's happened?" Joe asked worried as he sat down next to them both

"She's been really badly sick" Rachel explained

"That doesn't sound good, will she be okay?" Joe asked

"I think so, will you get the thermometer so I can take her temperature"

Joe got up and went to the medicine cupboard and got it out.

When Rachel took her temperature she realised it was 39 degrees which was a lot higher than it should be

"Joe that's really high" Rachel said worried

"Do you think we should get her checked out?"

"Might be a good idea, just to be on the safe side. Why don't you give NHS direct a call, see what they say"

Rachel stayed with Rosie as joe went to ring them.

It felt so weird for Rosie to have them both fussing round her like this, normally when she was poorly she was just left to get on with it, but she did feel really awful. She felt like such a baby, crying into Rachel as Rachel stroked her Hair however she couldn't seem to be able to help it.

"They said to get her checked out at the local emergency care centre"

"Okay then"

Suddenly Rosie began to feel really sick again and her face turned pale

She tried to get up but her legs felt like jelly and she couldn't seem to be able to move, so she finished up being sick all down herself and Rachel

This made her cry even more and she felt really embarrassed but she couldn't have helped it

"I'm sorry"

"It's alright darling it's not like you did it in purpose, should we get you a nice hot shower though before we go out so you can freshen up a bit."

Rosie nodded

"Joe watch her a second, I'm just going to nip to the utility room to get a fresh top"

Rachel got up and picked out the first top she saw before going back

She then helped Rosie to her feet however she was shaking so much still and she could barely walk, causing both joe and Rachel to get really concerned

"Joe are you sure we should just take her to the emergency care centre and not straight to A&E"

"Well they'll let us know what they think won't they, just take to emergency care"

"Okay" Rachel said

She helped Rosie upstairs and into the bathroom

"Will you be okay standing up while you're in the shower"

"Yeah"

Rachel helped her out of her pyjamas and into the shower

Once she was done she dried her off and got her into some fresh clothes and helped her downstairs

"Who should take her?" Joe asked

"I'll take her, you stay here with lily"

"Okay" joe said

Rachel helped Rosie out and into the car, though she could barely walk and when Rachel looked at her face she could see how bad she was.

"Sod taking you to emergency care, we're going to A&E" Rachel said knowing if she took Rosie in looking like this she'd only get told to go there anyway

Rachel drove to the nearest hospital and helped Rosie out and into the waiting room.

"Hello" Rachel said once they were at the front of the queue "we're here about Rosie"

"What's the problem" the lady asked

"Well she's been having really severe headaches, she keeps being sick and she's really dizzy, at the moment she can't even walk properly"

"Okay, there's a bit of a wait at the moment, so it might be a while before she gets seen"

"It's 1 o clock in the morning" Rachel sighed not being able to believe that there was still going to be a wait at this time

"We don't control people's illnesses I'm afraid"

"Yeah I know I'm sorry"

"You're Rosie's mum I take it" the receptionist said beginning to fill a form in

"No I'm ...I'm her guardian"

"Right well would you like to sign here please"

Rachel sighed and after a few more questions they got sat down, Rosie was still feeling really sick so they'd given her a cardboard bowl to sit with.

They'd been waiting about 15 minutes when Rosie suddenly started feeling sick again, and before long she started being sick into her bowl

"That's it, good girl" Rachel said

Rosie's cheeks burned red she couldn't believe she'd been sick in front of all the other people

About 10 minutes later Rosie stopped feeling as sick so sat up

"I can't believe I was sick in front of everyone"

"Hey they'll have seen worse in this place I promise" Rachel said smiling

Rosie smiled weakly before collapsing against Rachel again.

"Ow my head hurts" Rosie whimpered

"I know love, you'll get seen to soon I promise"

after about an hours wait they finally got seen to.

"Hello Rosie I'm doctor smith" a friendly female doctor said "would you like to tell me what's been going on"

"I feel really sick, and my head hurts"

"she's been feeling really dizzy too" Rachel added

"Okay when did this start"

"It's been going on all day I think, but it seems to have got particularly worse over the last hour or so" Rachel explained

" have you experienced anything like this before"

"No"

"And there's no possible reason you can think of that might have triggered it?"

"Like what?" Rachel asked

"Well it sounds like she's experiencing an experiencing a severe migraine which can lead to all the symptoms you've listed, so I was just wondering if there was any events such as a change of school, any particularly stressful event, an important exam, you get the picture"

"Well I suppose she's had a lot of changes going on recently she's started a new school and she's moved in with me, but she seems to be handling it really well"

"It's just stress can be a prominent cause of migraines"

"But surely stress wouldn't cause her to feel this unwell"

"You'd be surprised at the effect what goes on in our mind can have on our physical self" the doctor said "and there's no chance you can be pregnant is there?"

"She's 11 years old for gods sake" Rachel snapped

As soon as she said it she felt awful, normally she hated snapping at people and wouldn't do it very often however it was just because she was so tired

"Sorry, no there's no chance"

"That's okay, I'm sorry I need to ask these things, it's just routine"

"It fine really it is" Rachel said

"Okay, I'm going to just do a few checks now"

The doctor spent the next 5 minutes or so carrying out the tests and writing some notes

"Well there doesn't seem to be anything too serious going on, like I woad the most possible explanation for this is a severe migraine, keep her in bed for the next few days sometimes they do last a while and can make you feel awful, plenty of water-small sips often and I'll prescribe some co-codamol that should help quite a lot with the pain.

About 10 minutes later the two of them left the hospital and went back to the car, Rosie was starting to feel a tiny bit better and was able to walk without that much help from Rachel.

"Gosh it's definitely time for bed when we get in I think" Rachel said before yawning, she really did feel completely shattered now.

Eventually they arrived home, Rachel opened the door for Rosie and both of them went inside.

"Come on then you, let's get your pyjamas on" Rachel said

They went upstairs and Rachel helped her into her pyjamas as she was still feeling pretty weak.

"Rachel what happened?" Joe asked

Joe had heard them both come in so had gone through to Rosie's room

"It's all fine, just sever migraines the doctor said"

"Oh well that's good then .., well not good but..."

"Yeah at least we know it's nothing serious"

"Do you want me to sleep in here tonight Rach, so you can keep an eye on Rosie"

"That might be a good idea actually"

Rachel said goodnight to joe before going into her own bedroom with Rosie.

The two of them got Into bed and Rachel wrapped her arms around Rosie.

They'd been in bed about 5 minutes when suddenly Rachel heard the door open, she got a shock when she saw lily stood next to her.

"What is it?" Rachel asked sounding really sleepy

"I woke up and now I can't sleep" lily said beginning to cry

Rachel sighed she really didn't have the energy to get up and try and calm her down and take her back to bed, because with lily this would often be quite a lengthy process, so she pulled the covers over and lifted lily into bed with her and cuddled up to her.

Rachel was woken again at about 3 by lily screaming, still half asleep she sat up and realised she must be having a nightmare

"He's going to kill me Rachel help" lily cried

"Shh it's alright love" Rachel soothed "look you're in bed with me nice and safe"

Lily's screaming had woken Rosie up too, she woke up feeling awful again though so had to rush to the bathroom to be sick again

Rachel sighed, she got out of bed and helped Rosie even though lily was still quite upset and shaken up, but she couldn't exactly leave Rosie.

Once Rosie had finished being sick she heels her back to bed, before continuing to comfort lily

Eventually both girls managed to drop back off to sleep, Rachel sighed heavily what a night this had finished up being.

Lily woke up early the next morning. Rachel could feel her moving next to her so woke up too. She felt awful when she opened her eyes, but knew this was probably due to her literally having about 2 hours sleep and all the stress of last night

"Morning love" Rachel said sleepily

"Morning" lily said, before rushing to the toilet.

When she got back Rachel wrapped her arms around her, hoping she could get her to go back to sleep for an hour or so

"Why is Rosie in here too"

"Well she was feeling really poorly all last night so I took her to the hospital, and I wanted to keep an eye on her when we got back"

"Is she better now?"

"I'm sure she'll be better soon love, but maybe not right now"

"Oh" lily said snuggling right into Rachel "what are we doing today"

"To be honest love not a lot, your sisters still really poorly, and I'm way too tired to do lots" Rachel said

"Okay" lily said "am I still allowed to go to Sammy's tonight"

"Yeah course you are love, I'll give her mum a call in a few hours"

"And you're really not going to tell her that you're not my mum"

"Well if she asks I'm not going to lie to her my love, but If she doesn't I'm certainly not going to say anything"

"Thank you" lily mumbled

Thankfully lily decided to go back to sleep for a little while, which meant Rachel could too.

They woke up an hour or so later and Rachel did feel slightly more refreshed.

Rosie was still fast asleep In bed, so Rachel crept out of the room with lily as she didn't want to wake her.

Joe had also woken up and met Rachel on the landing

"Morning darling" joe said before giving Rachel a hug

"Hey, you sleep okay"

"Not too bad, you look knackered though"

"Well it's not surprising really"

"Did Rosie sleep okay once you put her to bed"

"Not really she woke up a few times to be sick, and lily didn't sleep great either did you love?"

"Really why didn't you sleep well" joe said

He then picked the little girl up in his arms

"I had a nightmare" lily mumbled

"What happened in it?" Joe asked

"I can't remember" lily said.

The nightmare had actually been about her dad, she'd dreamt he was coming to get her and it had really scared her, but she didn't really want to explain this.

The three of them went downstairs and Rachel decided she may as well go and make a start in breakfast as she didn't think Rosie would be wanting any.

As usual she made pancakes, like she always did on a Saturday morning.

Soon they were all sat around the table eating them.

About 5 minutes later Rachel heard Rosie shouting for her so immediately got up and went upstairs

"Hey love, how are you feeling?"

"I still feel poorly but a little bit better"

"Well that's good I suppose, take it easy today though yeah?"

"Yeah"

"I'll have to take lily out at some point maybe just to the park, but joe will stay here with you"

"Okay"

Rachel made sure Rosie was comfy before going downstairs again and clearing up the plates.

"Do you fancy going to the park or something later love"

"Yeah" lily replied, Rachel had taken her to the little park near them before and she'd really enjoyed it

"Okay well we can go after lunch then love"

Lily went upstairs to her room, to okay with some of her toys so Rachel decided to get on with some house work.

The morning seemed to pass quite quickly and before long Rachel decided it was time to take lily to the park, as she knew she would need some fresh air.

The two of them got in Rachel's car and she drove off.

"So are you looking forward to going to Sammy's tonight love"

"Yeah it'll be good"

When they got to the park Rachel and lily got out, however lily immediately ran off to go and play on all the stuff, Rachel smiled to herself before finding a little bench to sit on and read her book as lily played.

She was glad to see lily playing with all the other children too, as normally she was shy so it was good to see her mixing in with the others.

Rachel had been sat reading her book for about half an hour when suddenly lily came running towards her

"What is it love?"

"I really need a wee"

"Okay come on then, let's find the toilets"

Rachel took hold of Lily's hand and walked towards them however lily was quite desperate so they finished up having to run but eventually they found them so lily rushed in.

Rachel got her makeup out and started reapplying some of it, as it had come off a little bit

Lily came out a minute or so later and went to wash her hands

"Do you fancy going for a little walk now" Rachel asked

"Yeah"

They started walking all round the woods

Rachel took hold of Lily's hand so they strolled along together

"So how's everything going with you lily, all still okay?"

"Yes sort of"

"Sort of?"

Lily didn't say anything for a few moments as she didn't really know how to explain it properly

"Sometimes things seem a little bit strange still" lily admitted

"Well that's perfectly normal love, what sort of things feel strange to you"

"Just daft things, like having a proper bedtime and going out in the daytime with everyone, daddy never did anything like that with us"

"I know what you mean love, things are bound to feel so strange at first, but I promise before long everything will just seem so normal"

"I really like living with you and joe" lily said

"I like you living with me too" Rachel said

They walked round for a little bit longer before deciding to head back to the car, as lily was feeling quite tired.

By the time they were home, lily had fallen asleep in the back of the car. Rachel sighed, lily often would still have a nap at some pint in the day, but often this meant when she was at school she was really tired because she couldn't have one there so Rachel and joe had gently been trying to encourage her to stay awake the whole day but so far it hadn't seemed to work.

She got her out of her seat and lifted her inside

"Hey Rach" joe called

"Hiya give me a sec I'm just going to put lily on the sofa"

Rachel out lily down before going into the kitchen

"Did you have a nice time with her"

"Yeah it was nice, she fell asleep on the way back though, how's Rosie been?"

"Pretty much the same, I made her get out of bed to watch some tv though"

"Well that's probably a good idea, I didn't want her in bed all day, even if she is just sitting on the sofa now"

"What times lily off for her tea at"

"Her mum told me to bring her for about 5"

"Well considering it's 4 now she'd better wake up soon" joe said

"I know, I hate waking her up though, she looks far too cute" Rachel said causing joe to laugh

A while later Rachel decided she really did need to wake her up, so crept into the living room and gently shook her awake

"Love it's time we get going come on"

Lily reluctantly got up off the sofa and back into the car.

Once they arrived at Sammy's house Rachel and lily got out

"Why are you getting out Rachel?"

"Well I just want to have a quick chat with Sammy's mum"

"You're not going to tell her about you not being my mum are you?" Lily asked panicking suddenly

"Don't worry love, i just need to know what time to pick you up at"

Once she'd had a word with Sammy's mum Rachel drove back home.

"Rachel Rosie's just been sick again" joe informed her almost the second she walked back in the door

"Oh no I thought she was getting better" Rachel sighed

She then made her way upstairs and into Rosie's room, she found her in her en suite, resting against the wall, with tears streaming down her face again

"Hey love, joe told me you were sick again"

"Yeah I was it was horrid" Rosie cried

"Oh dear, I'm surprised you have anything left in you to sick up" Rachel said "I'll tell you what might help, a nice hot bath"

Rosie liked the sound of this, so Rachel took her down to the main bathroom and ran her a bath.

"Do you want me to leave you to it, darling"

"No, I want you to stay with me" Rosie said

"Okay, as long as you feel comfortable,with me being here"

"Why wouldn't i?"

"Well you're getting bit older now aren't you? I just thought you might not want me in while you have your bath"

"I don't mind"

"Okay then"

Rosie got out of her pyjamas, she hadn't bothered changing all day as she was more comfy in her pyjamas.

She got into the bath and immediately began to relax

"Do you want me to wash your hard for you?" Rachel asked, knowing when she was a little girl she always loved it when her mum would spend ages massaging shampoo into her hair when she felt poorly

"Yes please"

Rachel got the shampoo and started massaging it into her scalp, she could tell this was relaxing Rosie as she closed her eyes and looked as though she was about to fall asleep.

"Thanks Rachel" she said when she was done

"That's alright, are you ready to get out now"

"Yeah I feel really tired"

"Well why don't you go and make yourself comfy on my bed and you can watch the tv In there"

Rosie thought this sounded like a good idea so got out the bath and into some fresh pyjamas, Rachel then took her through to her room and dried her hair off before getting her comfy in her bed

Rachel then went downstairs and her and joe got a bottle of wine out and some chocolates and they had a nice relax for a couple of hours

"Gosh is that the time, I'd better go and get lily"

"Hadn't you better call a taxi" joe asked as him and Rachel had managed to get through quite a lot of wine

"Well I wasn't planning on driving like this"

Rachel called for a taxi and luckily it came pretty quickly, so she got to Sammy's house in just a few minutes

Rachel knocked on the door and after a moment or so Sammy's mum answered

"Hi Rachel" she said smiling

"Hello" Rachel said "how's lily been, did she behave herself"

"Oh yes, she's so well behaved and very polite, she's welcome any time"

"Well that's good to hear, Sammy will definitely have to come round ours soon"

"I think she'd like that, do you want to come in for a drink"

"No it's alright thanks, I've got a taxi waiting so I'd better be getting back, thanks anyway though"

"That's alright"

Lily smiled when she saw Rachel at the door and they both quickly said goodbye to Sammy and her mum, before getting back in the taxi.

"Did you have a nice time love?"

"Yeah it was really fun"

"Good, I'm glad you had a nice time"

"How come we're in a taxi"

"Erm well I had a little bit of wine, and when you have that it's not very safe to drive"

"Does wine make you drunk?"

"If you drink too much of it, it will yes"

"Are you drunk?" Lily asked now sounding a little bit scared

"No darling I'm not"

"Daddy used to get drunk a lot, it used to make him even more angry" lily mumbled

Rachel didn't know what to say to this so just put her arm round her supportively

"Sammy's mummy's going to have a baby" lily announced while they were still driving back

"Well that's great, it'll be nice for Sammy to have a little brother or sister" Rachel said,

she wasn't actually surprised lily had said this, as she had thought Sammy's mum did look like she could be pregnant but she obviously didn't say anything in case she wasn't

"Her tummy a getting big"

"Well that's be said there's a baby inside of it" Rachel explained

"How dis the baby start to grow" lily asked

This caused the taxi driver to smirk and Rachel could see him in the mirror.

"From a little egg inside Sammy's mums tummy" Rachel said really hoping lil would stop asking her questions now especially while she was in the taxi.

"But what made the egg start to grow"

"We'll talk about it later love, I'm feeling a bit tired now" Rachel said hoping lily would forget all about it

Almost as soon as they got home, Rachel decided it was time to put lily to bed as it was getting late and she seemed to be getting a bit ratty, which was often a sign she was tired.

"Night Rachel love you" lily mumbled, Rachel smiled again just as she had last night when lily had said it

"Love you too" Rachel said before blowing a kiss to her and turning off the light

Please review xxxxxx


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It was a Friday and the bell had just rung signalising the end of school and Rachel was glad to get out of her office, as she'd had a particularly stressful week, however almost as soon as she did her mobile started ringing. She sighed but realised she'd have to answer it In case it was important

Soon she realised it was Lily's teacher, telling her that lily had seemed really unsettled over the last week or so and had finished up getting into trouble quite a lot in lessons for not concentrating and distracting the others . Rachel promised that's she'd talk to her, however as she was driving to pick Rosie up she began to wonder what is was she should actually say as she was worried that something might be going on to make Lily act up and if she told her off it might make her close up to her.

She waited outside of Rosie's school for a while until she eventually came out and got in the usual she had a big smile on her face, she always seemed to whenever she came out of school on a Friday.

"Hiya Rosie did you have a nice day"

"Yeah it was pretty good, I'm so glad it's the weekend though"

"Me too actually, do you have any plans with your friends or are you just stopping in with me"

Recently Rosie had started going out with her friends on at least one of the days in the weekend, and as nice as it was for Rachel to see her mixing in with all the other girls, she couldn't help but wish she could have her to herself just for one weekend.

"No I'm just stopping in"

"Well we'll have to think of something nice to do then won't we?"

"Yep, so how was your day"

"Not too bad, I just had a call from Lily's teacher though"

Rachel thought it was important she told Rosie as sometimes Rosie was good at talking to lily, when lily didn't feel comfortable talking to Rachel or joe.

"Why what did she do?"

"Well apparently she'd been acting up in lessons quite a bit and had seemed a bit unsettled"

"That's weird normally Lily's so good"

"Yeah I know, it all seems a little strange to be honest" Rachel sighed

They drove back home as joe had managed to get go e from work In time to pick lily up.

As soon as Rachel came in lily came in and gave her a hug.

"Hey lily, was school okay" Rachel asked

"Yeah" lily replied but she sounded pretty flat

"rach, come in here a sec i need to talk to you" joe called

"go upstairs lily, i'm going to come up in a second to get you changed"

Lily went upstairs and Rachel went through to the back room to see joe, wondering what had happened

"Rach do you know if anythings gone on with lily she seemed really upset"

"Her teacher called me, turns out she's been getting into trouble in lessons and stuff"

"That doesn't sound like lily"

"I know, I'll go and have a talk with her now"

Rachel then went upstairs and into Lily's room, where she found her sat on her bed looking a little scared.

"Lily can I have a couple of words with you love"

Lily nodded her head but Rachel saw she looked frightened already

"It's just I've had your teacher on the phone to me earlier and ..she said ... Well" Rachel had to pause for a moment as she thought of the best way to put it "she said you seemed a bit unsettled"

"No I dont" lily protested

"Well she told me you were acting up in class a bit"

"She's lying" Lily said instantly

"Are you going to tell me the truth?"

"I have told you the truth, she was lying to you"

"And why would she do that?"

"Because she doesn't like me"

"Well I'm sure that's not the case, but even if it was a doubt very much she would lie"

"Well I didn't do anything bad"

"Okay then, you talk me through why you think she might be a little bit annoyed with you"

"I don't know"'lily mumbled

"It's just she seems to think that you've been very cheeky to lots of your teachers, apparently you refused to do anything at all in your music lesson and sat with your hands over your ears and you've really distracted all the other kids, so is any of that true?"

Lily shook her head vigorously

"So she made it all up?"

"Yes"

"You see lily I don't believe you. I don't think someone would make up everything to me on the phone, I honestly think something did go on at school today"

"It didn't"

"Lily I wouldn't be that cross if you told me the truth, but what I really can't stand is when people lie to me, you'll find that out over the years"

Lily thought for a moment, before whispering "some of it did happen"

"Which parts of it?"

"All of it" lily mumbled

"Well do you think it was acceptable?" Rachel asked

Although Rachel didn't want to get angry with lily, she knew she had to learn too so she couldn't exactly just let her get away with it

"No"

"Well neither do I to me it sounds completely unacceptable"

Lily felt as though she was about to cry however she bit her lip and prayed she wouldn't, she'd never been in trouble with Rachel before, not properly anyway, and she was beginning to feel quite anxious.

"Why did you do it?"

Lily shrugged her shoulders

"Lily when I'm talking to you, you answer me okay, so why did you do it"

"I don't know"

"But it really doesn't sound like you" Rachel sighed

"Sorry" lily mumbled

"Well you make sure there isn't a repeat, or they'll be trouble" Rachel said

Lily didn't say anything else, so Rachel sighed and got up, but as she was leaving she began to think maybe she should have stayed and really tried to find out what was going on.

Rachel went down and saw joe was already getting on with tea, which meant she could put her feet up for 5 minutes

She was sat on the lounge in the back room when Rosie suddenly came in

"Hey love"

"Rach did you talk to lily?"

"Yeah I did, she didn't say why she did it or anything"

"Is she okay?"

"She was pretty quiet but I don't think she's too bad, will you do me a favour and go and check on her for me"

Rosie quickly went upstairs and into Lily's room, she was sad when she saw her crying into her pillow

"Lily what's happened?"

"Rachel doesn't like me anymore" lily mumbled

Rosie sighed before going over and sitting next to her on the bed

"I'm sure that's not true, why don't you think she likes you?"

"Because I was really bad in school" lily admitted

"I'm sure you weren't that bad, and even if you were it won't make Rachel not like you anymore"

A few minutes later, Rachel realised Rosie had been up quite a while so decided to go up and check on them.

When she went into Lily's room she saw lily cuddled up to Rosie crying

"Oh lily don't tell me this is all about earlier love" Rachel said instantly feeling really bad

"She thinks you don't like her anymore" Rosie explained

"Hey that isn't one but true lily, don't cry love" Rachel soothed

She then went and sat down next to her

"Come on I wasn't having a go, well not properly anyway, all I said was don't let it happen again"

"I'm really sorry" lily said

"Let's just say no more about it for tonight love"

Rachel stayed with her for a bit longer but lily was still being really quiet and shy, almost like she had been when she first moved in with Rachel.

Eventually Rachel decided it was time to get tea out, so went down and helped joe sort it.

She shouted the girls down and they all sat at the table.

"Lily are you okay?" Joe asked when he saw Lily's tearstained face

Lily just nodded her head, since what happened earlier she was feeling really frightened and upset again

Rachel threw how a look to tell him not to go on.

Rachel, joe and Rosie were chatting while they had there tea but lily stayed quiet the whole time and barely touched her dinner despite it being one of her favourites

"You not feeling well or something?" Joe asked when he started clearing the table

Lily shook her head

A couple of hours passed and lily had just stayed up in her room but now Rachel had her bath ready.

"Lily come and get you bath" she called from the bathroom

Lily went into the bathroom and quickly got undressed and into the bath, but she didn't talk to Rachel like she normally did when she was having her bath.

"Love I meant what I said you know, just put what happened earlier behind you, there's no point getting all upset over it is there?"

"Okay" she mumbled however lily still seemed very upset

When Rachel had finished drying her hair off and getting her into pyjamas she said "do you want to come down and watch some tv with us seeing as it's a Friday or go straight to bed"

"Go to bed"

"Right well go to the bathroom then"

Once lily had brushed her teeth and been for a wee she got into bed

"Night lily, get a good nights sleep my love"

"Night Rachel"

"Try not to worry, once you're feeling better we can have another talk if you want or like I said we can just move on"

"Okay"

Rachel kissed her goodnight before flicking her light off and leaving.

When Rachel had left lily had a little cry, but eventually fell asleep.

At about 12 lily woke up again, she had, had a bit of a bad dream and it didn't take her long to realise she'd ended up wetting the bed, tears began to form in her eyes as she really didn't know how to sort it, it used to happen all the times at her dad's house but since she'd moved in with Rachel it hadn't as she'd felt a lot more safe and secure.

She felt really scared, as she remembered all the things her dad used to do to her when it used to happen, although she couldn't imagine Rachel and joe doing anything like that she still felt terrified all the same.

She grabbed her wet sheet and crept into the bathroom releasing she'd have to wash it. She then started running a bath and out her sheet in.

Rachel had heard someone get up and go to the bathroom and presumed it must be lily as Rosie would use her en suite, so she decided to check on her.

When she got closer, she was sure she heard the bath running, which she thought was extremely odd at this time of night, however it stopped as she got closer so she thought she was just imaging things.

"Lily is that you in there?" Rachel asked

Lily jumped at the sound of Rachel's voice

"yes" she mumbled

"Are you on the toilet?'

"Yes" lily lied however Rachel was sure she could hear her crying

Rachel waited a couple of minutes but when lily still hadn't come out she began to get worried

"Lily can I come in?"

"No go away" lily cried

Hearing this made Rachel even more worried so she opened the door and saw lily resting against the bath and her sheet in the bath

"Hey, what are you doing love?"

"I'm so sorry"

"Why have you got your sheet in the bath" Rachel asked but then it clicked, she crouched down beside her "did you have an accident"

"I didn't mean to"

"Oh love why didn't you come and find me"

"I was scared, I'm really relay sorry"

Rachel sighed and picked the little girl up and sat her in her knee on the toilet seat

"Don't you cry my love" she said getting some toilet role and mopping her face up "hey love, it doesn't matter I promise, you're only 4 years old it's bound to happen sometimes"

"I really didn't mean to" lily cried

"I know you didn't lovie"

"Are you cross"

"I'm not even the tiniest bit cross sweetheart, here's what we're going to do, I'm going to start running a little bath a nice hot one and I'm going to out these in the washing machine"

Rachel then took everything down and chucked it in the wash before going up to see lily who was crying again.

"This baths ready now, in you get"

Lily stepped in still feeling very scared

"Are you really not going to get angry"

"Oh lily I'm not going to get angry over a wet bed, especially when I was probably the one who made it happen in the first place"

"How?"

"Well I should have had a proper talk earlier, especially when I knew how much I'd upset you"

"It wasn't because of you" lily said "my dad used to get really angry with me when it used to happen"

"Did it happen a lot at your dad's?" Rachel asked gently

"Yes" lily mumbled "almost all the time, but when I came here I stopped"

"Well like I said you're only 4, and accidents happen to everyone don't they, so don't ever be afraid of coming to find me and letting me know I'd never ever be cross with you I promise"

Lily began to relax a bit now realising Rachel really wasn't going to shout

She quickly finished bathing her before getting her into some clean pyjamas

"Now how about we go down and have some hot chocolate and a chat"

Lily the got up and followed Rachel downstairs and waited a couple of minutes while Rachel brought her some hot chocolate

When she came back Rachel then sat the little girl on her knee

"I really didn't mean to make you all upset when I spoke to you earlier"

"I know"

"There's nothing serious going on at school is there love? Nothing that's making you feel really unhappy, because if there is we can talk about it you know"

"There's nothing bad, just sometimes I feel really tired at school and I want to be at home"

"I know you do but going to school is just one of them things you've got to get on with even though you probably do wish you could just cuddle up on the sofa and out some tv on"

"I like most of it, it's only sometimes on an afternoon, because I can't have my nap so then I get all tired"

"Well we're really going to work hard to sort out you not going to sleep in the afternoon aren't we?"

"Yes" lily said

Lily then let out a big yawn so Rachel realised she must be really tired which wasn't exactly surprising given the time

"Come on then you, let's go to bed"

"Can I sleep in with you, just for tonight"

"Okay then, just for tonight" Rachel said

The two of them went into Rachel's room and snuggled into bed and before long lily fell sound asleep.

She woke up early the next morning, and realised she was in Rachel's bed, suddenly she felt all embarrassed about last night again, and didn't really want to face Rachel yet, so crept out of her bed and decided to go into her sisters room for a cuddle.

When she went in she realised Rosie was already awake, reading her book. This was very unusual as normally Rosie loved a lie in.

"Lily what are you doing in here?" Rosie asked

"Can I come in your bed"

Rosie said yes so lily jumped in next to her, at her dad's she would always snuggle really close to Rosie especially after things got really scary, but it had been a while now since they'd had a cuddle just the two of them.

"How come, you've come in here Rosie?"

"Well I was in Rachel's bed before, but I don't want to talk to her at the moment"

"Why you can't still be upset about her telling you of yesterday?"

"No it's not that" lily said "I had a bit of an accident last night in my bed"

"Oh, did you tell her?"

"Well I tried to sort it but she found me"

"She didn't get angry did she?"

"No she was really nice about it, she just made me a bath and then we went and had some hot chocolate"

"Well that sounds nice, why don't you want to talk to her then"

"It'll be weird talking to her now and it's a bit embarrassing" lily admitted

"Don't be daft"

Lily stayed cuddled up to Rosie for ages and in the end they both finished up falling back to sleep.

Rachel and joe woke up a while later and Rachel got a bit of a shock when she realised lily wasn't in bed with her.

"Joe have you seen lily, she was in here last night"

"Nope I didn't even know she was in here, god you're a sneaky woman the things you do behind my back"

"Oh don't be so daft" Rachel said "I brought her in at about 1 last night, she was quite upset"

"Why what had happened?"

"Well don't say anything because she was really upset about it, but she'd had an accident and I found her in the bathroom, it took ages to calm her down the poor thing"

"Oh bless her, she'd have been really upset over it"

"Yeah it was awful seeing her like that"

"She's such a sensitive little thing it doesn't take much does it, you know to make her all upset"

"No it doesn't, it was awful seeing her so tearful last night"

Rachel and joe stayed chatting for a bit, and then Rachel got up to check lily was okay.

She went into her room but couldn't see her in there so looked all round the first floor. When she hadn't seen her anyway she began to get a bit worried and went up to Rosie's room.

The sight of the two of them cuddled up together made her heart melt.

"Joe come here" Rachel said

Joe came running upstairs and went to join his wife and saw the two girls together.

Lily especially looked really cute with her thump in her mouth snoring very gently

"Get the camera" Rachel whispered

Joe went and got it and took a photo of the two of them thinking it would be a cute memory

Rosie woke up first and saw her sister was still asleep so crept out of bed and went downstairs where she found Rachel and joe in the living room having there morning coffee.

"Can I come in?" Rosie asked

"Course you can love, we don't bite" rachel said laughing

Rosie went and sat down on the sofa with Rachel.

"Is your sister still asleep?" Joe asked

"Yep" Rosie said "she seems really tired, though she must have woke up early she came into my room at about 6:30"

"Well she started off in our room apparently but i didn't know anything about it" joe said

"Yeah she told me what happened last night"

"Does she seem okay now, she was ever so upset last night?"

"I think she'll be fine, she's pretty embarrassed though I think that's why she came into see me so early"

"Well no ones going to say anything about it to her today" Rachel said "the last thing I want is her feeling all uncomfortable"

"Rachel today when joe goes for his football game, can we maybe go shopping"

"Urm why does it need to be when I go for my football, maybe I fancies a bit of dress shopping too" now joked causing them both to laugh

"Shut up you" Rachel said playfully "yeah that sounds like a good idea, we'll go after lunch, do you need anything in particular"

"Well there's this disco thing at school in a few weeks, so I'd quite like something for that"

"Well that sounds like fun, we'll have a look round today, I don't know what we're going to do about lily though, she'll be bored as anything going round the shops"

"She could come to the match with me"

"Oh yeah a 4 year old at a match full of drunk men, chanting a load of crude songs and swearing, yeah sounds the perfect afternoon for a little girl" Rachel said rolling her eyes

"Okay, I was only trying to help" joe said but even he could see it probably wasn't the best idea in the world

"I could see if mum could have her, the two of them get on so well, I'm sure she wouldn't mind looking after her for a few hours"

Rachel then rang her mum who said she'd be happy to look after lily, she was glad this was sorted as it meant she could have a few hours with Rosie without feeling pressurised to get back like she normally did if they took lily with them.

When lily woke up she realised rosie must already be up, although she didn't really fancy seeing everyone, she knew if she didn't come now Rachel would just come and get her

She shuffled downstairs and into the kitchen

"Hiya darling, we've all had breakfast but would you like me to get you something"

"Yes please" lily mumbled

"What do you fancy"

Lily just shrugged her shoulders

"Will pancakes do?" Joe asked knowing it was her favourite

Lily nodded her head in response to this

"Come and sit down love" Rachel said smiling

Lily gingerly took a seat at the table next to Rosie but was biting her nails, normally Rachel would gently tell her off for this but she decided to leave it for now.

"I got a bit of a shock when you weren't in bed this morning" Rachel said

"Sorry" lily said

"It's alright I got a lovely photo of the two of you cuddled up, I'll have to show you later"

Lily remained pretty quiet through all of breakfast, Rachel knew this would probably because she was still a bit worried about last night, so decoded to have a little chat with her later.

"Why don't you start getting dressed love, I'll be up soon" Rachel said

"Okay" lily said before going upstairs

A couple of minutes later Rachel went up after her

"Hey" she said walking into her room

"Hi"

"Are you okay, you seemed a bit quiet at breakfast" Rachel asked

"Yeah I'm okay" lily said however her voice was pretty unconvincing and before long her bottom lip started to wobble and she started crying

"Oh dear, come and sit down" Rachel said sitting her in her knee "is this because you're still feeling a bit upset"

Lily nodded her head

"Well don't let it make you feel all shy darling, honestly it's not a big deal"

"but everyone will think I'm a baby"

"Sweetheart you're 4 years old, no one will think anything of it I promise okay"

"Okay" lily mumbled before cuddling into Rachel "thankyou"

"What for love?"

"Being nice to me last night and not getting angry"

"It'll take a lot more than that to make me angry at you trust me, now are you going to get forget all about it and get dressed for me"

"Yeah" lily said before taking off her pyjamas and getting into her clothes

Rachel smiled at her before making up her bed

"You'll be going to my mums later is that okay with you"

"Yeah that's good, I like your mum"

"Well that's good because from what I've heard she likes you a lot too"

"Do you like her?" Lily asked

"Yeah we get on really well now, didn't always though"

"Why?"

"Well like most mums and daughters we used to fight quite a bit, especially when I was a teenager, beed to be quite naughty at times"

"Did she used to hit you?"

"No darling she didn't" Rachel said,

she knew she needed to get this idea out of Lily's head that it was normal for parents to hurt their kids, as it was something she brought up quite a lot

", not even if you were really naughty"

"Nope, like I've said before there are better ways to sort things than hitting people because that makes others really upset and hurt,which most people really don't want."

"Oh" lily said

"Anyway should we go down now"

Lily nodded her head so Rachel took her hand and lead her down.

Both girls then went off and did there own thing for a bit, so Rachel had a coffee with joe, however they hadn't been sat down long when there was a knock on the door and when Rachel answered it she realised it was joes friend come to pick him up ready for the game, although it wasn't till the afternoon they wanted to get there early so they could go for lunch in the pub before hand.

When joe had gone Rachel felt a bit lost as there was no house work that really needed doing as she'd done most of it through the week, she saw the girls school bags so decided to have a look through them, in case they'd forgotten to give her any letters or something.

She went through Lily's bag first and didn't find anything particularly important except a few little letters.

However when she went through Rosie's she realised that she'd actually got a letter that looked quite important. When Rachel read it through she realised it was about how much Rosie seemed to be struggling with some of the things in school at the moment and they were thinking of putting her in a special progress group as they thought It would help her catch up, Rachel sighed realising that Rosie must have hid it from her.

She wanted to talk to Rosie about it straight away as she wanted her to know she wasn't angry or anything like that.

When she went looking for her she realised that she was in the living room with lily watching a film.

"Rosie, can I have a couple of words please love"

"Yeah okay" Rosie said a little confused

Rosie didn't get up from where she was sitting but just paused the film

"No I mean in private, come through here" Rachel said

Rosie then got up and followed Rachel through to the kitchen

"Let's go upstairs a minute"

The two of them went up to Rosie's room and Rachel shut the door behind her.

Once they were in there, Rachel and Rosie both sat down on the bed however by now Rosie was feeling quite worried about what It was Rachel was going to say.

"Darling, I was going through your school bag earlier and I found a letter, about ...well about how some of you teachers think you're struggling in some of your classes a bit"

"Oh that" Rosie said feeling a bit worried as she wasn't sure how Rachel was going to react to it

"Why didn't you give it to me?" She asked gently

"Well because I forgot i had it"

"Okay" Rachel said not believing her for one second

"Yeah I just got it yesterday but I barely looked at it, so I forgot about it" Rosie lied

"And the real reason?"

"That is the real reason"

"Well I don't believe you, because I know you Rosie and I know you'd have been worrying about it all day and it certainly wouldn't have been something you'd have forgot about, so I can only imagine that it wasn't something you wanted me to see"

"I'm going to the toilet" Rosie said not really wanting to talk about it

She quickly got up off her bed and went into her en suite however when she did she suddenly found herself crying, though she wasn't sure why, it wasn't as though Rachel seemed particularly angry or even disappointed about it, she just sometimes felt like she was really stupid.

Rosie hoped Rachel would go away however from experience she knew this was highly unlikely.

When Rosie hadn't come out after a couple of minutes Rachel knocked on the door

"Rosie come out love I just want to talk that's all, I'm not angry with you or anything I promise"

Reluctantly Rosie opened the bathroom door and came out and Rachel saw her tearstained face

"Have you been crying?" She asked sounding worried

"No"

"Daft question and answer really, I can see you have come and sit down love, come on"

Rachel sat back on Rosie's bed and put her arm around Rosie, Rosie couldn't seem to help herself cuddling up to Rachel and having a good cry into her.

"I'm sorry love, maybe I shouldn't have brought it up I didn't mean to upset you, I wasn't bothered at all by what the letter actually said I was just a bit worried about why you hadn't shown me it"

"I don't even know why I'm crying, I'm just being silly"

"Oh Rosie you're not being silly"

"No I am, I just didn't want to show you it in case you thought I was stupid"

"You know I didn't think that Rosie, you're a very clever girl"

"No I'm not if I was I wouldn't be getting put in a class full of morons would I?"

"Hey don't say that, there's no need for it" Rachel said suddenly sounding a bit stricter as she always hated that word being used "and thats certainly not the case, all it means is there going to give you a bit more support in some subjects, darling you missed about 5 or 6 years of school pretty much, it's remarkable you're anywhere near catching up with the others, but by the sound of it you are"

"What do you mean"

"Well I look through your books and from what I see you're english is excellent, you seem really talented at it"

"Why do you look through my books?" Rosie asked not entirely sure she was happy with Rachel going through her school books without her knowing about it

"Well so I can see how you're doing"

"You could have told me, maybe there's stuff in there I don't want you to see"

Rachel could actually see where Rosie was coming from with this and did start to feel a bit bad about going through her books, though she had been doing it a lot over The past few weeks and hadn't really thought anything of it, however when she came to think of it, it probably did seem a bit sneaky

"Ok fair point, I won't do it again I promise" Rachel said " the letter said there mainly going to focus on bringing your maths up to speed"

"I hate maths"

"Don't tell anyone I said this but so do I, it was my worst subject at school" Rachel said

"I thought you'd have been good at everything"

"Nope not at all, I was far from a model student I can assure you"

"Really"

"Absolutely" she said smiling slightly "so what I'm saying is, don't give up because you're doing really well, and I'm expecting good things of you because I know how much you'll be able to achieve when you out your mind to it"

"Thanks Rachel" Rosie said before giving her another cuddle

It felt so nice for Rosie to have someone who actually cared about her school and how well she was Doing, it was something she'd never experienced before.

At about 1 Rachel and Rosie decided it was time they headed off on there shopping trip so they got in the car with lily.

"Rachel how long will you be gone for"

"A couple of hours, you make sure you're a good girl though while we're gone"

"I'll be good I promise" lily said

"That's what I like to hear"

Once they'd dropped lily off they headed off for the town.

"Where do you want to go first?" Rachel asked once they'd parked up

"I'm not bothered, you can choose" Rosie said

The truth was Rosie hadn't been shopping properly before, her dad would just get the cheapest stuff he could find, so she didn't know any of the shops.

Rachel took her into new look first and together they found a few dresses that Rosie really liked so she went to try them on, in the changing rooms.

Rosie tried the first one on but when she saw her reflection tears came to her eyes, it didn't hang on her properly at all, she didn't really have a figure yet, however if was the type of dress that was meant to be figure hugging so in her eyes it just made her lot like a boy.

Thinking Rosie had been quite a while, Rachel pulled back the curtain and went into the changing room as it was pretty big so they could both fit in there.

"What's up love?" Rachel asked when she realised Rosie was crying, Rachel had noticed she'd been doing quite a lot of crying over the last few days and had seemed really emotional over really small things and couldn't help but think maybe it was just that Rosie was getting a bit hormonal.

"I look like a nine year old boy" Rosie sobbed

"Oh love no you don't, I think that dress is just a bit grown up for you"

"I bet it wouldn't be too grown up for all the other girls in my year" Rosie sobbed

"What makes you say that"

"Well because they all look much older than me"

"Yeah and you want to know why that is? Because they cover themselves I make up, wear ridiculously short skirts and wear bras 5 sizes too big for them and stuff them with tissue"

"Well maybe I should I try that, it'd be an improvement"

"Oh sweetheart" Rachel sighed "you are a very beautiful young girl, and don't you dare tell me otherwise"

It was true Rosie was a very pretty girl however she always had looked quite young for her age, just like,lily did.

Rosie sat down on the little bench and put her head in her hands

"You feeling a bit teary today love?"

"Yeah and I don't even know why"

"It's just your age love, you're hormones are everywhere"

Rosie sighed before standing up and giving Rachel a quick cuddle

"Now why don't you try this one, I think it'll really suit you"

Rosie took off the dress she was wearing and tried on the one Rachel was holding and when she saw herself she was very pleasantly surprised

"I love it"

"You look gorgeous in it darling"

In the end they decided to buy the dress, as Rosie did really like it.

They carried on doing a little bit more shopping before stopping for a drink and a snack

"Rachel can I please ask you something, though I think it might sound weird"

"Go for it"

"Well you know you told me about periods and stuff"

"Yeah"

"How old were you?"

"Oh erm ... Come to think of it I was probably about your age what makes you ask?"

"I was just wondering that's all because one of my friends started yesterday at school"

"Oh did she, that can't have been very nice, starting at school"

"She was really shocked, they called her mum though to take her home"

"Probably for the best if she's that upset, you just make sure you tell me when it does happen okay?"

"When do you think I'll get mine?"

"Oh love I really don't know, it could be next week, could be next year or maybe not till a couple of years, there's no knowing really"

"I hope it's not soon"

"Well it's one thing you can't control I'm afraid" Rachel said "anyway should we carry on with some more shopping"

They went round a few more shops and both of them managed to pick out some really nice things, and it was nice to have a bit of girly time just the two of them for a change.

Please review xxxxxx


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

This is quite a short update, I started writing it and was planning to make it a long one so I could make it my weekly update, but while I was writing had another idea that I want to do this week, so thought I may as well put this up, though it's probably not all that great as like I said was going to be a lot longer x

It was a Friday and Rosie was with her head of year, she'd got into quite a lot of trouble that week for various things however it was only when her head of year pulled her and in and started giving her a telling off, that she realised how angry Rosie seemed about it all, but this was quite unlike Rosie, she'd got to know her quite well over the last few weeks and had really helped her settle in and although she struggled in some of her lessons she seemed like a really nice girl

"Do you like it at this school Rosie?"

Rosie shrugged her shoulders and stared at the ground

"It'd be nice if you would actually dignify my questions with an answer"

"It's okay"

"Well from what I've seen and been hearing about you, anyone would get the impression you don't actually want to be here"

"Well then they'd be getting the wrong impression miss"

"Is that so?"

"Yes it is" Rosie said

she hated being in here, especially when she was in trouble, even though she knew after this week she more than deserved everything that her head of year and form tutor had said to her.

"Well you've got lots of friends, most of your teachers say very nice things about you so what I don't get is why you'd want to misbehave"

"I think the teachers here are very good at blowing everything out of proportion, I haven't even be that bad"

"That's not what I've heard, and I think you'll find the teachers in this school are remarkably good at keeping things in proportion, unlike a lot of other schools I've worked in"

Rosie stared at the ground again starting to feel really uncomfortable

"Can I go now miss smith?" Rosie asked

"Yes but you can expect a phone call home tonight, I can ring your mum or dad take your pick"

"Well my mums dead, and my dad's banged up so why don't you take your pick" Rosie Said before storming out

As soon as she left miss smith put her head in her hands, she couldn't believe she'd completely forgotten about Rosie's circumstances, it had just slipped her mind.

In the end she decided to call Rachel, who wasn't best pleased when she heard about everything.

By the end of the school day Rosie really didn't feel like going home as she knew miss smith would have called home, it was a shame joe was away with work as she was sure that he wouldn't be as harsh on her as Rachel was going to be.

Rosie was meant to be meeting Rachel in the car park like normal but she really didn't want to face her today, so decided to go for a little walk around.

About 15 minutes passed and Rosie knew she should probably head to the car, Rachel had tired to ring her about 10 times on her new mobile, so she knew she must be worried and as scared as she felt she realised she'd have to go home some time, so sighed before going I to the car park.

Unsurprisingly it was pretty empty by now so it was easy to spot Rachel's Mazda. Rosie sighed before walking towards it and then getting in

"Hey where the hell have you been" Rachel asked angrily the second she got in

"With teachers"

" I know all about what's been going on this week and I'm not one bit happy"

"I thought you'd be delighted" Rosie muttered however she wasn't quiet enough for Rachel not to hear her

"And you can cut out the cheek, I'm not having it"

Rachel had noticed that recently Rosie had become a lot cheekier with her, although in some respects Rachel knew this was because she felt as though she knew, she was going to stay at Rachel's forever and nothing would change that and Rachel was glad to see her feeling more relaxed, she knew she'd have to stamp it out before it became a real issue.

"We're going to talk about it at home, now out your seat belt on"

"Why can't we talk about it now" Rosie asked just wanting to hear whatever she had to say

"Because I need to drive"

"You can't just take a teachers word for everything" Rosie said tears beginning to form in her eyes

"So is it not true then?"

"Well yes but .."

"Fine question answered" Rachel said

Tears began to roll down Rosie's cheek, she hated being in trouble especially with Rachel.

They drove to Jans house to pick lily up, but neither of them said a word while they drive there.

"Stay in the car I'll be 5 minutes" Rachel said

She knew seeing Rosie's tear stained face would equal a load of sympathy with jan, as she knew how much she hated seeing a kid upset but that would mean Rachel would get a load of ear ache about being to harsh on Rosie and she'd finish up getting away with it Scott free.

A few minutes later lily came out however she didn't look too happy either.

"Why are you in the back Rosie?" Lily asked as normally Rosie would get in the front with Rachel

Rosie shrugged her shoulder not wanting to explain

"Are you feeling a bit better now lily?" Rachel asked as when she'd first seem her she'd been in tears cuddling her mum, as she'd had an argument with one of her friends and she'd felt really upset about it.

"I'm okay" lily said

"Well I'm glad about that, and come Monday you'll have both forgotten all about it"

Lily then looked at her sister and realised that she'd been crying

"What's wrong Rosie?"

"Nothing"

"Why have you been crying?"

"Leave me alone" Rosie said

Lily then leaned in to whisper in Rosie's ear "are you sad because you're thinking about dad" she asked as often this would be something that would still make lily sad whenever she thought about it , so she wondered if this was why Rosie was upset

Rosie suddenly lost her temper and pushed lily quite hard, in order to shut her up, however she ended up pushing a lot harder than she meant to and lily ended up hitting her head causing her to burst into floods of tears

"Hey what do you think you're playing at" Rachel shouted "that must have really hurt her"

Lill crying for all of the journey home as she'd hit her head quite badly but it was more because of he shock of Rosie hurting her.

"Rosie go straight to your room and you need to have a long hard think about all your behaviour" Rachel said as soon as they got inside sounding really angry now.

Rosie immediately ran to her bedroom and slammed the door before bursting into tears.

"Oh dear how's your head" Rachel asked

"Okay" lily sobbed

Rachel quickly lifted her up in her arms and they went through to the kitchen

"I didn't mean to upset Rosie" lily cried

"I know you didn't, she was out of order doing that to you"

"She's never hurt me before"

"Well she won't do it again I'll make sure of that"

"Whys she upset?"

"Well because she's got Into quite a bit of trouble this week at school and I think she's feeling pretty bad about it now, but that still doesn't excuse her hurting you like she did, and I'll be making that perfectly clear when I see her in a couple of minutes"

"Please don't shout at her" lily said as she really didn't like the thought of her sister getting into trouble with Rachel

"Don't you worry love"

Rachel then stayed with lily till she was feeling better before going up to see Rosie

She knocked once on her door before going in and found her curled up on her bed crying

"Sit up" Rachel ordered

Rosie sighed but did sit up anyway

"Why did you hurt lily, she was in floods of tears downstairs it took me ages to settle her down"

"I might have known she's the only one you'd be bothered about" Rosie cried

"Oh don't be so silly, don't you dare try and turn this round on me" she Said "what's been going on at school?"

"You already know"

"Well perhaps I want to hear it from you"

"Well perhaps I don't want to tell you"

Rachel was about to loose her temper properly but stopped herself

"You know what that's fine, you can stop up here until you do"

Rosie sighed before getting her phone out and texting one of her friends

"I'll have that, thank you"

As soon as Rachel left, Rosie kicked her wall as hard as she could, wanting to let some of her anger out, she then saw one of her school books in her bag and hurled it against the wall. Before curling up on her her bed and bursting into angry floods of tears, wishing there was someone who understood how she was feeling properly.

Rachel went downstairs and went to sit with lily, but she noticed she was running her stomach

"Are you okay sweetheart?" Rachel asked sounding a bit worried

"My tummy hurts"

"Really when did that start? It seemed fine 5 minutes ago"

"Just now"

"Where does it hurt"

Lily pointed so Rachel started to rub it

"I'll get you a hot water bottle, and some water that might help but if it doesn't i'll get you some calpol"

Rachel went upstairs and grabbed her hot water bottle before getting it ready and getting her some ice water, hoping all this would help,

"Lily put this against your stomach"

Lily took it and out it against it and sipping her drink

Why don't you out some tv on?" Rachel said

Rachel then grabbed the remote and looked on the guide, eventually finding something she thought lily would like.

They were about half an hour into it when lily started crying

"What's up love, is it your tummy?"

"Yes it really hurts" lily cried

"How about a little lie down for half an hour or so then"

"Yeah"

Rachel and lily then went up to Lily's bedroom

"You may as well get all comfy love, get into some pyjamas if you want"

Lily then took her school uniform off and Rachel helped her get into her favourite pyjamas

"I feel a bit sick"

"Maybe get to the toilet then, just in case"

Lily got up and went into the bathroom followed by Rachel

"Just stay in here, for a couple of minutes if you feel sick"

"Okay"

Rachel stayed with her but luckily she wasn't sick in the end

"Come on then love, I think you should try having a little rest"

Rachel then tucked lily up in bed, but suddenly she noticed her looking even more uncomfortable

"I think I have to go to the toilet" lily said

"Go on then love, I'll wait here"

After a couple of minutes lily came back and got into bed

"Do you feel any better?"

"A little bit" lily said

Rachel stayed with her for a little while but she ended up falling asleep so she decided to creep out of her room.

It was only then that she realised Rosie still hadn't come out her bedroom, Rachel that she would have calmed down by now and come out, so she was a little worried and decided to check on her.

When she walked in she saw her curled up crying into her pillow and couldn't help but feel sorry for her

"Go away" Rosie mumbled

"Come on you, let's go downstairs"

"No I'm alright, I just want to stay up here" Rosie said through sobs

"I want to talk to you"

"I'm sorry about everything" Rosie mumbled

"Well I'm glad you've began to realise it was wrong but I still want to talk"

"I really don't want to" Rosie cried

Rachel sighed before going over and sitting on her bed

"Come on, surely I'm not that bad"

Rosie didn't say anything just continued to cry, so Rachel gave in trying to stay angry with her and ended up wrapping her arms around her and giving her a big cuddle, so Rosie collapsed into her chest and sobbed

"Oh love, what's happened?" She asked

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to be so bad"

"Well I was pretty shocked when I got the call, it doesn't sound like you at all darling"

"I've just felt really upset all this week, and I guess that's made me take everything out on everyone"

"What's upset you love, it's nothing at home is it?"

"No, I really don't want to talk about it"

"Well If you don't want to, I'm certainly not going to force you if you don't feel comfortable discussing if with me, but I would like you to because I can't help if I don't know what it is"

"I really don't want to say"

"Okay, well the thing is much as I don't want to I am going to have to punish you for what's bee happening"

"I know"

"So I'm going to be keeping your phone over the next week and you're grounded"

"What does that mean?"

"You're not allowed out the house for the next week... Well unless it's with me or joe or jan"

"Okay"

"Come on let's go and get a drink and some chocolate, you look like you could do with it"

The two of them then got up and started walking out

"And Rosie, if you do change your mind about not wanting to talk, well you know I'm here don't you, and I really would listen to you"

"I know"

"Even if you think it's going to get you in trouble, or it's going to make me angry or upset, I am here for you"

"Honestly I'll be fine"

Rachel went down and made them both a drink

"I don't think you're sisters feeling too good" Rachel said as she sat down

"Why?"

"She's got a bad stomach"

"She might just be trying to get off school tomorrow"

"Erm it's Friday, you don't have school tomorrow" Rachel said laughing

"Oh yeah I forgot, good job maybe mrs smith will have calmed down by then"

"Let's hope so young lady " Rachel said

A few minutes later lily came downstairs and went to sit on Rachel's knee and cuddled into her

"Hey, you feeling any better"

"My tummy hurts still"

"Okay, Rosie love will you do me a favour and bring the calpol through it's just in the cupboard next to all the biscuits and stuff"

Rosie got up and quickly found it so brought it to Rachel

"Thanks love"

Once Rachel had given it to lily, Rosie took it back.

Lily stayed on Rachel's knee for ages, not wanting to get up, but eventually Rachel tried to ease her off

"No, I want to stay with you"

"Darling I'll be 2 minutes, I'm just nipping to the loo"

Once Rachel had got back, lily Immediately cuddled up to her again, she always did get really clingy whenever she was poorly, but Rachel knew this was probably because whenever she was Ill when she was with her dad, he used to just find it annoying and wouldn't give her any extra attention.

"Lily I've got to go and make the tea now love"

"No" lily said feeling a bit tired and this would often cause her to be a bit whiney

"Well I don't think you'd want to go hungry would you? Anyway Rosie can give you a cuddle"

Lily wanted to stay with Rachel but reluctantly got up and sat in Rosie instead.

The night seemed to pass quite quickly and before long everyone was asleep in bed, well all except Rosie, ever since Rachel had tucked her in she had been worrying quite a lot, and still hadn't got to sleep even though it was really late.

In the end she decided to get out and go into Rachel's room.

As soon as she went in she heard Rachel snoring, which made her giggle a bit, as she hadn't thought of her as the type of person who would snore.

She stood by her bed for a bit, not being sure if it was a good idea coming to see her now, as she felt really bad waking her.

Eventually Rachel stirred and saw Rosie stood next to her

"What's up love?" She asked sleepily

"Can I come in with you for a bit" Rosie whispered

"Yep, go round the other side" Rachel said as she was way too comfy to budge over

Rosie crawled in Beside Rachel, who wrapped her arms around her so they were cuddled up

"Rach I can't sleep" Rosie said

"Is that why you came in here?"

"Sort of, I guess I had some stuff on my mind"

"Want to tell me, what this stuff is?"

"Yeah, it's about earlier, you know I said I didn't want to talk to you"

"Yeah"

"Well I think I do"

"Okay love just take your time, I'm listening"

"I know I've been bad this week, but I've had loads on my mind, the thing Is, it's my mums anniversary today and it's kind of got to me a lot"

"Oh love, I'm so sorry I completely forgot"

"I don't think lily remembers her much and she definitely won't have a clue about when she died and I don't want anything being said to her about it because ..."

"Let's not concentrate on lily, at the moment it's you I'm bothered about"

"It's just when she was around, she was like a real mum to me you know, like it was okay when she was around, dad would still go mental but it wasn't as bad, but then when she had lily she just went all funny, I remember she used to cry for hours in the bathroom and me and lily would listen but lily would get so upset sometimes she was only 3 at the time and then it was me who found her this time last year .. You know when she killed herself and it's just been on my mind all week, and I've been acting up because it makes it easier doesn't it? To pretend everything okay"

"Oh love" Rachel said

She really didn't know what to say to all this, it made her so upset whenever she heard about aspects of the girls past, even now and sometimes it really did get to her.

"Sweetheart it must have been so hard for you, and I'm so pleased you felt you were able to talk to me about this"

"I just wanted you to know"

"I am here you know, whenever you do need to talk"

"I know that"

"Do you fancy maybe going downstairs, we can chat some more if you want, I'll get us some coffee or whatever you fancy"

"That sounds nice, but I'm really tired now"

"Okay love, do you want to stay in here or go back to your own bed?"

"Stay here"

"Okay love"

Rachel then put her arms around Rosie and before long they were both sound asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Just wanted to say this probably isn't that good, I've been feeling really Ill all weekend and haven't been able to spend as much time on it as I would have liked, so apologies in advance xxxxx

It was early on a Friday morning and everyone was asleep except Rosie who had woken up at about 5 with a really bad stomach and hadn't been able to get back to sleep. She'd thought about going to wake Rachel but she felt really mean because it was so early but her stomach was hurting quite a lot now.

She laid in bed trying to take her mind off it but nothing seemed to be working and she just felt really uncomfortable. Eventually she heard joes alarm going off so knew this meant he'd be getting up to go to work so Rachel would wake up anyway.

About 20 minutes later she heard the front door slam so knew joe must have left so crept out of her bed and knocked on Rachel's door.

"Yeah come in" Rachel said wondering why one of the girls would be up at this time, normally the two of them liked there lies in.

Rosie opened the door and walked into Rachel's room, where she saw her laid down In bed, obviously wanting a little bit more of a rest before she had to get up.

"Hey love, come in for a cuddle if you want"

Rosie went over to Rachel's bed and got in

"What are you doing up so early, it's only 6:20, another hour before you need to be up"

"I woke up ages ago, I've got a really sore stomach"

"Oh have you love, well we'll have to get you some medicine won't we? You could have come in before if you were feeling poorly"

"I know but I wanted to try and go back to sleep"

Rachel then wrapped her arms round Rosie and this made Rosie feel a little bit better.

Rachel stayed in bed for about half an hour but then realised she'd have to get up. She dragged herself out of bed and went into her shower.

Lily woke up soon after and like she always did went into Rachel's room, she always liked having a cuddle off her first thing in the morning

"Where's Rachel gone?" Lily asked getting into bed beside Rosie

"She's in the shower"

"Why are you in here?"

"Because I don't feel very well"

"Oh"

Lily then snuggled up to Rosie for a bit.

Once Rachel had finished her showier she wrapped a towel around herself and stepped out but as soon as she did lily came running in

"What are you doing"

"I need to do a wee" lily explained

"Okay go on then"

Lily quickly rushed to the toilet as Rachel brushed her teeth and once she was done Rachel lifted her up in her arms and carried her out

"Right I think it's about time you both started getting ready for school"

The girls then went to there own bedrooms and started to put there school stuff on, however after just 5 minutes lily came running back into Rachel's room

"Will you do my top button and do my tie now"

"Sure" Rachel Said "I thought you were okay with doing the top button now, you managed to do it when you were getting changed after PE yesterday"

"No I didn't I got mrs Holmes to do it for me, and it's gone really stiff since you put it in the wash yesterday"

"Well you shouldn't have played such a daft game, then you wouldn't have got all muddy and I could have waited till the weekend to out it in the wash"

She finished doing Lily's tie before straightening her hair and doing her makeup.

Once she'd finished getting ready, Rachel went downstairs and started on breakfast.

As soon as it was ready she shouted both girls down.

Lily came running downstairs and sat down at the table straight away, like she always did when food was around however Rosie still hadn't come down.

"Have you seen your sister anywhere lily?"

Lily shook her head so Rachel decided to go up and check on her

She knocked on the door before going in.

When she was in she noticed Rosie laid down on her bed again, while holding her stomach

"Are you alright sweetheart?" Rachel asked beginning to get a bit worried

"My stomach hurts" Rosie said

"Come and get some breakfast, you might feel better after that"

"I'm really not hungry Rachel, I'll just stop up here"

"No, I can't send you to school on an empty stomach come down please"

"I really don't want to"

Rachel went and sat down on her bed and when she looked at her she could see she did look quite tired and pale.

She began to think maybe Rosie could do with a day off school because she really didn't want to send her in poorly

"When did you start feel poorly love"

"Well last night but I didn't say anything because i thought it would go away but when I woke up this morning it was really sore"

"Are you going to be okay for school today, or do I need to ring my mum up?"

"I think I'll be okay"

"You sure? I don't want to send you in if you're really poorly"

"I'll be fine"

"Right well if it gets any worse tell me because there's no point you being in school if you're feeling rubbish, you won't learn a thing and you'll finish up feeling 10 times worse"

"Well I'll see how I go then"

"Right and are you sure you don't want breakfast"

"Yep"

Rachel realised she'd have to leave it, after all she couldn't exactly force her to eat if she didn't want to.

She went down and finished eating with lily.

Soon they were all in the car on the way to school however Rosie still wasn't saying much and she had her eyes closed

Soon they were at Lily's school so Rachel quickly said bye to her, but as they were walking up she saw a man in the distance near the gate and it began to feel as though they were watching them as Rachel took her in, but she couldn't tell properly as she was in a bit of a rush, so just thought nothing of it.

By the time they got to Rosie's school Rachel really was wondering whether it was a good idea to send her in at all as she really did look like she was in pain

"Darling are you sure you're going to be alright, you can stay off if you think you need to"

"I think I'll be okay"

Rachel was pretty unconvinced but decided she may as well send her off and let her give it a go

"Okay but if you feel like you need to come home you tell me straight away yes, just go and get someone to call me"

"Yeah I will"

"Bye then Rosie, try and have an okay day, just think it'll be the weekend when you finish"

"Bye Rachel"

Rachel watched as she walked in, beginning to feel like she should have insisted she stopped off but there wasn't really much she could do about it now.

A few hours passed and Rosie was in her maths lesson but she really wasn't feeling right, her stomach had been hurting all morning but now it was getting worse.

The teacher had noticed Rosie wasn't doing much work so make straight over to her.

"What's up Rosie, are you finding this hard?"

Rosie shook her head in response

"You don't look too well"

"My stomachs really hurting" Rosie told her

"Oh when did that come on"

"I've had it all day"

"Oh how come you came into school if you were feeling unwell"

"I thought I'd be okay after a while"

"Well you don't look okay to me, go to the medical room for a lie down and they'll call home for you"

Rosie really did feel poorly now so didn't put up any protest and got her bags and stuff and left the classroom.

On her way she realised she needed to go to the toilet, so went into the nearest ones however when she went she realised there was blood on her knickers.

Rosie began to really panic as she hadn't expected it at all and it made her feel really weird, she didn't know what to expect with it or anything and she felt way too embarrassed to tell anyone. She began to cry as she really didn't know what to do and she was feeling pretty scared.

Eventually she came out the toilets though she was still quite tearful and shaken up by everything and made her way to the medical room.

After seeing what a state she was in, they decided to call Rachel straight away.

Rosie continued to cry, she didn't know whether to tell Rachel or not, as when they'd talked about it before she'd always said to come straight to her when it happened, however now it had she really didn't know whether to or not as she thought It would be really uncomfortable telling her about it.

About 10 minutes later Rachel arrived, she came straight to reception and saw Rosie sat crying in there so went over to her and gave her a big hug

"Hey sweetheart, you not feeling well still?"

Rosie just shook her head in response

"Come on then love let's get you home, I've asked my mum to come over but hopefully she won't be too long"

Rosie was still crying quite a lot by the time they got in the car so Rachel was feeling pretty worried about her now

"Rosie you're not seriously unwell are you, like I don't need to get you checked out"

"No" Rosie replied

They were about half way back and Rachel decided to pull in as she literally hadn't stopped crying the whole way and this was getting her really concerned

"Love has something happened?" She asked gently

"No I've just got a bad stomach"

"It's just you seem very upset for someone who's crying because there unwell, there's nothing else going on I need to know about is there"

"No" she sobbed

"Are you sure? You know you can tell me anything"

For a moment Rosie considered telling her but then decided against it so just shook her head in response and tried to stop crying

Rosie sat in silence for the whole way back but had managed to stop her crying

Jan was already there by the time they got back. Rachel was glad about this as sometimes she would arrive quite late

"Oh dear you don't look very happy" jan commented as soon as she saw Rosie

Rosie didn't reply but dashed straight to the downstairs toilet.

"What's wrong with her"

"I'm not sure she's had a bad stomach ache all morning but she seems really upset"

"Do you want to head off back to work?"

"I'll stay for a little while, it is lunch time after all"

"Okay, I'll get us a cuppa then"

Jan went straight to the kitchen and made her and Rachel a cup of coffee

She then brought them into the living room, where Rachel was sat looking worried

"She'll be fine Rach, she's probably just not feeling right"

"I'm going to go and check on her" Rachel said

She got up out of her chair but as soon as she did Rosie appeared back in the living room still looking really tearful.

"You really don't look very happy" jan said "what's happened"

"Nothing" Rosie replied

"Well it doesn't look like nothing"

"Mum just leave it" Rachel sighed knowing her mum could sometimes be way too heavy handed about things like this and would just finish up doing more harm than good.

Rosie then burst into a fresh flood of tears, but ran upstairs before Rachel or jan could say anything.

"God what on earth do you thinks happened" Rachel sighed

"Maybe it's just her hormones"

"Well she really did have a bad stomach this morning but she wouldn't be this emotional over it" Rachel said but then it clicked why Rosie might be upset, after all it did add up

"I'm going to go and have a word with her" Rachel said before going straight up the stairs

She found Rosie laid on her bed crying so went over and sat down next to her.

"Rosie can I talk to you about something?"

"Yes" Rosie mumbled

"Well it's just the thing is ... I was wondering if maybe you knew the reason why you had a stomach ache and why you're feeling so teary, do you?"

Rosie nodded her head

"You want to tell me why you think it is"

"I think i might have started my period" Rosie said as her cheeks burned red

"Oh love come here" Rachel said giving her a big cuddle "that must have been a shock for you"

"I hate it"

"I know you must feel like that now but trust me it'll be fine in the end, just takes a bit of getting used to"

Rosie didn't say anything just continued to cry

"Right here's what we're going to do, I'm going to get you some fresh things you can change into and we'll need to get you some pads too and ..." Rachel said but she stopped when she realised how much Rosie was crying

"Oh sweetheart you're going to be fine I promise, we'll have a talk downstairs"

"but Jan's down there" Rosie sobbed

"Well she'll understand I promise"

"I don't want her knowing Rachel"

"Okay sweetheart I'm not going to force you to tell her if you really don't want"

"I don't want to"

"Right okay sweetheart that's not a problem"

Rachel continued to hug Rosie hoping it would calm her down.

"Come on sweetheart why don't you go and get yourself sorted, can you remember how to put the pad on"

Rosie nodded her head, still feeling pretty shaken up as she really hadn't expected it at all and she felt a bit poorly still but she did at least feel marginally better for telling Rachel and it hadn't been as embarrassing as she thought it would have been.

"Why don't you have a shower love, to freshen up a bit"

"Okay"

"It might make you feel a bit better to"

"I hope so"

"Well I'm going to nip down and get you a hot water bottle and then when you come out we'll have a talk before I go back to work"

"But what am I going to do when you're gone ...please don't leave me"

"Sweetheart I'm not leaving you, I'll be back in a couple of hours, you'll be fine I promise just, just go to bed and have a read of your book or something"

Rosie then went in her bathroom and got in the shower so Rachel went downstairs

Almost as soon as she went into the kitchen jan came in after her, Rachel sighed as she knew she was about to get bombarded with questions about what was wrong with Rosie

"Rachel is Rosie okay?"

"Yep she's just poorly"

"I can tell something's gone on"

Rachel knew there wasn't much pint lying to her mum as she could always tell when she was lying anyway and she thought it was probably for the best if jan knew anyway just I case Rosie did need her.

"Look if I tell you, you don't say a word to her okay"

"Okay"

"She started her period earlier and I think she's pretty upset about it"

"Really that's very young isn't it?"

"Well I can't have been that much older when I started"

"You were 11 actually too, I remember you coming home all upset about it"

"Well like I said don't say anything but keep an eye on her won't you and if she does get really upset about it give me a call"

"I will hadn't you be getting back to work now anyway"

"Probably but I'm going to have a quick chat with her once she's come out the shower"

Rachel waited downstairs with her mum for a little while before going up to check on rosie

She went upstairs and saw her in her room, sat on her bed with her pyjamas on starting to look quite a bit calmer now

"Hey sweetheart how are you feeling"

"Okay I guess"

"I know it's a really big thing for you"

"I was so shocked"

"Yeah i can imagine, but what you've got to remember Is every girl in the world has been through it at some point so it's nothing to feel embarrassed about"

"I guess"

"And I know how horrible it is especially when you've got a bad stomach and everything but that should go away after the first day or so"

Rachel and Rosie continued to chat for a bit longer until finally Rosie had managed to calm down quite a bit.

Rachel then went back to work though she felt pretty bad about leaving Rosie and wished she could stay with her, but she knew she needed to get back to work.

All afternoon Rachel really hadn't been able to concentrate properly as she had Rosie on her mind and she was very relieved when the bell for the end of school finally went.

Lily had just finished school so waited at the door for the teacher to let them out, she was surprised when she saw that Rachel wasn't in the playground yet as she was normally there bang on time.

However suddenly lily caught sight of her uncle, this caused fear to flood through her body as he'd been the one person she prayed she'd never see again. She began to get even more scared when he came towards her

"I'm here to pick lily up, I'm taking her tonight because Rachel's stuck in a meeting" he said

The teacher was quite busy so didn't question it too much and lily had to go off with her uncle.

"Come with me"

Lily didn't dare do anything else so followed him round the corner away from everyone else but she already felt sick with worry

"Well it's been a while little lily" he said

Lily didn't say anything just stood there shaking a bit

"Have you missed me" he said stroking her cheek, however his touch made her flinch

Lily forced herself to nod her head

"We've all missed you too, fancy leaving your dad"

"He hurt me"

"Well maybe you deserved it" he whispered "now are you going to be a good girl and listen to what you're uncle says"

"Yes"

"Are you sure? Or do I need to get angry"

"I'll listen I promise"

"Good now on Monday after school, I'd really like to see you, so you're going to come home with me"

"But Rachel will ..."

"Never mind her, you're not going to mention any of this to her, do you understand?"

"Yes"

"It's our little secret, and you know what happens when you break secrets"

Lily tried to stop herself crying but she was finding it hard because she was so scared and she felt her uncles grasp tighten on her shoulder

"I know"

"Good, well run along now little lily, Rachel will be worried if you keep her waiting and remember you don't breath a word of this to anyone"

Lily nodded before running off and finding Rachel car and darting Inside but she had tears rushing down her face.

"Hey sorry I late I ..." Rachel began but then she saw Lily's face "lily what's happened?"

"Nothing"

"Why are you crying"

"I was just in a bit of trouble with mrs Holmes and I just got a bit upset"

"Really? Maybe I'd better go and speak to her then"

"No please don't"

Rachel sighed but decided to leave it and started driving back

"Lily what were you in trouble for"

"Just talking when we were having Circle time"

"Well you seemed very upset"

"I don't like being In trouble"

"I know you don't love" Rachel sighed "listen don't get too upset I know you won't have meant to get in trouble"

Lily felt a bit more relaxed now she was safely with Rachel but she already felt sick about Monday.

"You're sisters poorly so try and be quiet when you get in okay love"

"Yeah"

As soon as they got in Rachel went up to check on Rosie

"Hey how are you now?"

"I'm better I think"

"Good, and you don't think we need to have another chat about anything, because if you do you know we can, I'm always here for you"

"No I think I'm okay"

"Good well you know where I am?"

"Yep"

Rachel decided to leave her to it as she didn't want to make her feel overpowered by loads of questions

Both girls were pretty quiet all evening and Rachel was getting pretty worried about lily especially when she ended up having a bad dream later and coming in her bed, which she hadn't done for a while, she couldn't help but think there was something bad going on

To be continued

Please review, but know this wasn't all that good I've just not been able to concentrate on it properly xxxxxxxx


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The Monday had finally come round and lily had been really scared all weekend, she'd been really jumpy and practically didn't leave Rachel's side for the entire weekend. Both joe and Rachel had been really worried and had tried talking to her on more than one occasion but neither of them had been able to get anything out of her.

She'd also barely had any sleep and kept waking up on tears or screaming after having a bad dream.

She woke up at about 2 on the Monday morning and she started crying when she remembered what was happening today, although she started off crying quite gently she gradually got more and more hysterical.

As Rachel and joes room was just next to Lily's they woke up to her crying after a while.

"Oh not again, I thought she was going to sleep through tonight" Rachel sighed

"Poor kid, what on earth can have gone on, to make her feel like this"

"I don't know" Rachel said "look I'm going to go and calm her now, I might just go in with her for the rest of the night though"

"Okay, well I'll try not to wake you when I get up for work"

"Okay enjoy the rest of your sleep and if I don't see you before, have a nice day at work"

"Love you"

"Love you too"

Rachel quickly got out of bed and went into Lily's room.

As soon as she went in she flicked the light on and saw her sat bolt upright in bed crying her eyes out.

She rushed towards her and put her on her knee

"Hey" she said gently "calm down sweetheart, if you carry on like this you'll make yourself sick"

Lily collapsed into Rachel and cried into her

"Lily you've got to tell me what's upsetting you this much" Rachel sighed "and I know you're going to tell me there's nothing, but me and joe are getting really worried"

"I just had a bad dream"

"Look whatever you say to me, no matter how bad or shocking you think it is, I won't get cross but I need you to trust me and tell me what's wrong"

"I'll be fine"

"Well you keep saying that but you haven't been one bit fine since you left school on Friday"

"I'm tired" lily sobbed

Rachel sighed before saying "okay love, do you want me to come in with you?"

"Yes"

"Budge up then love"

Lily moved over so Rachel could get in next to her.

Rachel drifted off to sleep quite quickly but she kept waking up because she could feel how restless lily was next to her and she stayed like that for most of the night.

Lily woke up early the next morning despite having barely any sleep that night, she immediately began to feel really nervous and sick.

After a little while Rachel also woke up

"Morning lily"

"Hi" lily said

"Did you have an okay sleep In the end?"

"Yes"

"Good, wish I could say the same about me, you were ever so restless all night"

"Sorry"

Rachel smiled and ruffled Lily's hair affectionately before getting out if bed.

"I'm going in the shower now, I won't be long"

Rachel went in the shower and enjoyed letting the warm water run over her body, it always did make her feel refreshed.

When she got out she quickly got herself ready before going to wake Rosie up.

"Morning" Rosie said sleepily

"Hey how are you feeling today?"

"Okay"

"Has your stomach ache gone now"

"Yep sort of"

"Told you it would, I've put some painkillers in your bag for school today just in case"

"What I have to go into school today" Rosie said surprised

"I'm afraid so, it's just something you've got to get on with, if every girl missed school every time she got her period there'd never be anyone there"

Rosie sighed heavily before getting up

"Get dressed, breakfast in 20 minutes"

Once she saw that Rosie was starting to get dressed and wasn't going to go back to bed again, like she sometimes did as soon as Rachel left, Rachel went to check on lily.

When she went back into her room she realised lily must have gone back to sleep when she was in the shower, Rachel felt awful waking her as she looked quite peaceful.

"Lily it's time to get up"

Lily opened her eyes and quickly got out of bed and with Rachel's help got dressed for school

Before long everyone was sat round the table at breakfast.

Her and Rosie started eating straight away however lily was just messing with hers

"Lily eat that toast up please" Rachel said sounding a little firm as lily had barely touched any of her food all week.

"I'm not that hungry"

"Well I want you to try and eat it anyway"

Lily managed a few small pieces of her toast but suddenly her stomach went really funny and she had to dash to the toilet.

"What's up with her?" Rosie asked

"I don't know, I'll go and check she's okay"

Rachel quickly went to the downstairs toilet and saw lily sat on the floor looking really pale

"Are you alright sweetheart?"

"Yeah I thought I was going to be sick or something because my tummy went funny but I'm okay"

"Are you sure? You do look a bit pale"

"I'll be okay"

"Right, we'll take it easy yeah? Go and have a lie down on the sofa or something"

Lily went into the living room and laid down while Rachel and Rosie finished their breakfast.

Once they were done Rachel went into the living room and saw lily crying into one of the cushions

"Lily you've really got to tell me what this is all about"

"It's nothing"

"Well it's not is it, nothing doesn't make you this upset"

"I've just been worried that's all" lily said trying to make up something as quick as she could

"About what lily?"

"Just because I've got reading practice today with mrs Holmes and I'm really bad at it and everyone else is so much better at it than me, I know I'm going to do really bad" lily said trying to sound believable

When Rachel heard her sat this she didn't t know what to think, she knew that it seemed unlikely lily would be all this upset over something so small but she also knew how much of a worrier she could be over little things

"Darling please don't tell me that's what you've been getting yourself all worked up over"

Lily nodded her head

"But lily you know no ones going to be disappointed or angry with you"

Lily wrapped her arms around Rachel and snuggled into her chest, although she hadn't told her anything somehow she felt a lot safer wrapped up in her arms and the smell of her perfume made her feel all relaxed

"There now don't you go worrying about anything at all love" Rachel said rubbing Lily's back as lily continued to give out muffled sobs

Lily didn't want to get off Rachel's knee, she felt really comforted just being with her

"And you're not to let anything make you this upset okay?"

"Yeah, I just wish I was clever sometimes and could be as good as all the others"

"You'll get there sweetheart don't you worry, but i can have a quick word with mrs Holmes before school if you're this upset over it"

"No" lily said instantly

"Okay but remember when you do your reading and stuff it's only to help you"

"Okay"

"And we'll do some practicing just the two of us when you get back from school tonight"

Hearing Rachel say this made lily burst into tears again because she knew she wouldn't be there tonight

"Come on now my love you're going to be okay" Rachel said "hey look, you're getting my shirt all soggy" she said causing lily to laugh a little but through her tears

Lily stopped her crying and tried to wipe her tears away with her sleeve

"Now don't you get your shirt all soggy too, let me find you a tissue"

Rachel found her handbag and searched through till she found a tissue

She went back into the living room and mopped Lily's face up a but

"Are you ready for school now?"

"Yeah"

"Come on then let's go and get your shoes on"

Lily then went and followed Rachel out to the front door and the two of them got ready for school

She drove to Lily's school first but as soon as she got there lily got all teary again and when Rachel walked out with her she started clinging to her

"Lily you're going to be fine I promise, come on let's get you in"

"Please don't leave me"

"I'll be back at the end of school straightaway I promise"

after a few more minutes she eventually did get lily to go in.

As she went back to the car she was beginning to feel awful for leaving her when she was so upset.

All day at school lily had been really worried, she hadn't been able to think or concentrate on anything and there'd been a few instances when mrs Holmes had,had to take her outside the classroom because she was so upset

She knew what she needed to say but the thought of seeing him made her sick

Lily got up off her chair while they were doing some work and went to her desk

"What is it lily, are you feeling upset again?"

"No, I forgot to tell you, my uncles taking me to the dentist so I have to leave 10 minutes early"

"Well your uncle will be in reception, so you should go there"

"Okay"

Lily was about to walk off when mrs Holmes stopped her

"I'll ask miss smith to keep an eye on things in here and I'll walk you down"

When she'd spoken to there classroom assistant they began to walk down together

"I wanted to have a word with Rachel actually after school"

"Why I'm not in trouble am I?"

"No..nothing like that, I'm just a bit worried and I think she needs to know how upset you've been"

"I'll be okay"

"Well I think I might ring home tonight, just so I can have a quick chat"

Lily was about to start crying again but bit her lip

As soon as she was in reception she saw her uncle and she instantly felt sick again, and started to feel really dizzy.

"Hi lily" he said walking towards her

Hearing his voice made lily feel really funny and she turned white.

A few seconds later she collapsed to the floor

Mrs Holmes immediately rushed over to her

"Oh my gosh, lily are you okay" she said worried

A second or so later lily opened her eyes and started crying

"Come on let's get you sat down, I'll get some cold water"

She helped her over to a seat and sat her down

"Look we need to get going, lily come on you'll be fine"

Lily was still crying but she knew she needed to stop as her uncle would get angry if she didn't and she really didn't want that to happen, as she felt scared enough as it was.

"Don't you think it'll be a good idea for lily to rest here for a bit"

"No I'll look after her, come on lily" he said his voice getting firmer now

Lily got up and followed her uncle out, leaving mrs Holmes feeling quite worried.

About 10 minutes later the bell went for the end of school, so Rachel rushed out and went to the car, she was looking forward to seeing lily as she'd been worried about her all day and really hoped she was okay now.

When she got to the primary school she was a bit late so there was no other kids there.

Mrs Holmes spotted her and went straight up.

"Hey sorry I'm late, where's lily"

"She went about 20 minutes ago, her uncle picked her up"

"What" Rachel said

"Actually though I'm glad you came because I wanted to see you about lily ..."

"No you don't understand I had no idea her uncle was coming, he's dangerous, he's been in prison and ..." Rachel said suddenly feeling really sick

"But she said you knew all about it"

"Oh my god, what if he's going to hurt her"

"Right we need to stay calm, do you know where he lives"

"No and you know why... I don't want to know anything about her dad or her dad's relatives, they are dangerous and that's why they haven't been allowed anywhere near Rosie or lily and now you're telling me you've just let her out"

"Well you've never informed us that..."

"I shouldn't have to inform you, you know that lily was taken off her dad and ..." Rachel began tears starting to form in her eyes because she was so worried

"Yes but you've never discussed why she was taken off her dad and you didn't inform us that he had dangerous family" she said gently, seeing how upset Rachel was

Rachel was about to start to loose her temper but realised this wouldn't really get her and she knew that she was being irrational

"I'm sorry"

"It's okay, why don't I phone the police let them know what's going on, they'll find her Rachel I promise"

Rachel sighed before going into reception with mrs holmes and collapsing into one of the chairs

A few minutes later she returned with a cup of coffee and handed it to Rachel

"Thank you"

"Police are coming to the school, to ask us both some questions"

Rachel didn't say anything for a while just sat there drinking her coffee and thinking to herself

"She was so upset all weekend you know, I should have picked up on it, I know I should have picked up on it"

"You can't blame yourself, she was so upset all day at school too, I kept having to take her outside because she was that worked up, I was stupid for letting her go"

The two women talked for a bit longer until the police arrived, Rachel had told her mum what was going on and she too was very worried and had gone to take Rosie home from school and back to her house, while Rachel got lily.

They asked them both some questions for a while

"And do you have any reason to believe lily might come to any harm while she's with her uncle"

"I know he's got a criminal record and I also know how frightened lily is of him so yes, I believe we do have reason to believe she'll come to harm"

"Okay well we've got a good idea where he lives and we believe he'll have gone home so we can try and get her now, if you'd like to come with us"

"What if she's not there" Rachel asked still feeling really scared

"Well then we'll send out a search team"

Rachel quickly got up and started gathering her things together

"Rachel do you need me to come with you?"

"No I'll be okay don't worry about it"

Rachel got in her car and started following the police car, they seemed to have been travelling for ages when they finally pulled up outside a grotty block of flats.

Rachel felt sick to her stomach praying nothing terrible had happened, as she'd never forgive herself for not realising what lily was so upset about.

The two police men got out beside Rachel and walked up.

Once they reached his flat they banged on the door.

After what seemed like forever there was an answer and Lily's uncle came to the door.

He was exactly like Rachel had imagined, really tough looking, with tattoos all over him.

"Sir we believe you have lily in the flat with you"

"And so what if I have, she's family"

"Can we come in"

"No"

Suddenly Rachel heard a scream, that sounded a lot like lily so she barged past him and raced to find her.

"Lily?" She shouted

She heard crying coming from one of the bedrooms so went in and saw lily curled up crying her eyes out, her nose all bloodied up.

Tears began to form in Rachel's eyes as she rushed to her and wrapped her arms around her

"What did he do?"

"He made me come... I know I shouldn't have but he made me" lily cried "he hit me because I said I didn't want to stay with him"

Rachel out lily on her knee as she cried into her, she was getting her too covered in blood from Lily's nose.

After a while she said "let's get you cleaned up, come on"

Lily was to shaken up to even stand, so Rachel had to carry her through

One of the police saw the two of them and rushed over

"Have you seen what he did to her?"

"Lily did your uncle do this to you?"

Lily nodded her head through floods of tears

"I hope to god your going to arrest him"

"Of course, are you okay to take lily back home or do the two of you need a lift"

"We'll be okay, I'm going to get her checked out at the hospital, just to be on the safe side"

Rachel spent a while getting Lily's face cleaned up as best she could before carrying her out to the car

"It's okay sweetheart, look your with me now your safe"

"I don't want to see him again"

"You won't have to I promise, just try and relax, I'm going to take you up to the hospital, just so you can get checked out, but first I need to give joe a call and let him know what's happening, he was so worried when I spoke to him earlier"

Once Rachel had finished talking to joe she turned her attention back to lily who was still crying her eyes out, to the point she couldn't catch her breath

"Lily, deep breaths" she said "that's it good girl"

"I'm sorry, don't be angry"

"Darling no ones angry I promise, we know none of this was your fault"

"He hurt when he hit me"

"I know, come on love take some more deep breaths"

As soon as lily had stopped crying so much Rachel started driving to the hospital.

"I'm going to be sick" lily cried when they were about half way there

Rachel pulled in as quickly as she could but lily had already started being sick all down herself and on the seats.

"Sorry"

"Never mind, thank god for leather seats huh?"

Rachel then cleaned her car up and took Lily's top off her.

"You'll have to just wear your coat"

"Okay"

Once she'd finished cleaning everything up, she got lily back in the car.

Before long they were at the hospital and rachel had to carry lily in because she was all upset again.

She sat with her on her knee until they got called in.

Luckily they weren't too long with the doctor. She cleaned lily up a lot and gave her some ice to put over her nose, but she didn't think it was broken.

"Come on love, let's go home and get you a nice hot bath" Rachel said when they were done

Lily sat in silence all of the way home and by the time they were home felt quite dizzy and faint, like she did earlier.

When they opened the door both joe and Rosie came running up, and started giving her lots of hugs and attention, but all of this was a bit overwhelming for lily and she started crying, seeing her sister so upset made Rosie cry to.

"Joe you get Rosie some hot chocolate and I'll give lily a bath"

Rachel took lily up and started running a bath

Once it was ready she got lily undressed as she got her in, but she noticed her flinch as soon as she touched her

"It's alright darling, I'm not going to hurt you" she said gently

"I know"

She then helped lily into the bath.

"Rachel I'm scared" lily cried

"I know, but you know when you're with me and joe you don't need to be scared"

"Okay"

"Do you fancy anything to eat after your bath"

"I don't know"

"Well maybe give it a go, you were sick earlier so you'll have nothing in your tummy"

"What time is it"

"7"

"It feels really late"

"That's because a lots happened sweetheart. I bet you'll be ready for a good sleep"

"I'm too scared to go to sleep, I'll have a bad dream"

"Well I'll tell tout what we'll do, we can kick joe out of my bed and you can come and cuddle up to me would you like that?"

Lily smiled faintly before nodding

"Okay"

Once she'd finished bathing lily she got her dry and into some pyjamas before taking her downstairs

Joe came up to her and wrapped his arms around her, he'd been so worried about her earlier and was so glad to see her safe.

"Do you fancy having a cuddle with me for a bit, while Rachel gets you something to eat?" He asked

Lily nodded so joe took her through to the living room and she cuddled up to him.

About 10 minutes later Rachel came back in with some tinned spaghetti and toast.

"Here love, try and eat this up"

Lily managed about half of it but couldn't eat anymore

"Come on then let's get you into bed, joe is it okay if you sleep in the spare room"

"Yeah no problem"

"Right, let's go up"

They went upstairs together and went into the bathroom

"Brush your teeth and go to the loo darling then I'll tuck you up"

Lily went into Rachel's room a few minutes later and got into bed.

Once Rachel had tucked her up she said "I'll be up in a while, try and get some sleep, but come and find me or joe of you need anything"

"Okay, night love you"

"Love you too sweetheart"

A few hours later Rachel came up to bed, she was surprised that lily had slept through as she thought she'd have been quite unsettled.

She reached under her pillow and grabbed her pyjamas and changed into them.

She'd just finished brushing her teeth when she heard lily screaming so went over to her,

"It's alright I'm here love"

"Rachel?" Lily cried

"Yeah look it's just me and you're okay"

"I had a bad dream"

"I know but you're okay now, I'm just coming to bed now so we can have a cuddle"

"Okay"

"Do you need anything, glass of water or something"

Lily shook her head so Rachel got in next to her and reached to switch off the light

Rachel wrapped her arms round lily and this made her feel all safe.

"Night sweetheart, love you lots" Rachel whispered

Please review xxxxxx


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

In response to the review I got about how little update- I'm at college doing a levels at the moment and with the amount of work I get I really don't have time to update anymore than I do. If I could I would trust me, I work too which takes up some of my weekend so there just isn't the time. But I always do one a week I promise. And also my updates are quite a bit longer than some peoples (normally between 4-6 thousand words) so if I did update a few times a week that would end up being about 16000 words a week, which is pretty impossible to do. Glad your enjoying the fic though.

A few days had passed and lily still wasn't coping particularly well, she'd been so upset and worked up Rachel had kept her off school after she'd tried to make her go in on Tuesday but had ended up getting so upset she had to be brought home after just a few hours of her staying there. Joe and Rachel had decided she definitely should go back tomorrow as they really didn't want her missing anymore of school, because they thought this would do more harm than good.

Rachel had put her to bed an hour or so ago, she'd decided to make her go on her own tonight, as she knew she had to try and get things back to normal again, though night times were particularly tricky.

"Joe please could you go and make me and Rosie something to drink"

"What did your last slave die of" he asked rolling his eyes but getting up anyway

"Well what else is a husband for?"

"If I'd have said that about you, I'd have got a lecture on how sexist I was" he said laughing

"Joe just go and make the drinks" she said

Once joe had gone she took her opportunity to turn the football off and put eastenders on for her and Rosie

"He'll go mad" Rosie said giggling

"Tough I'm the boss"

Rosie laughed before returning her attention back to the tv, which was a lot more interesting now the football was off

"Are you looking forward to going out for our meal tomorrow with everyone"

"Yeah It'll be really nice, I like all your family, what about lily though will she be okay to go?"

"Well I was just saying to joe earlier it's about time we got her doing normal things again, I know she's still very shaken up and everything but we need to get her back into some sort of routine"

"She was crying in the bathroom earlier, I heard her so I walked in and she was sat against the bath"

"Oh the poor little thing, it's so hard for her I know" Rachel sighed

Almost as soon as they'd finished talking they heard lily running down the stairs crying

She came straight into the living room in tears

"Oh dear, come and sit down love" Rachel said

Lily went straight over and sat on her knee and put her thumb in her mouth, which normally Rachel would tell her off for now but she decided to leave it

"Did you have another bad dream?"

"Yes" she cried

Rachel kept her on her knee for a little while but then decided to take her back up to bed.

"I won't be able to sleep" lily cried once Rachel had put her back in bed

"Just give it a try, I'll stay with you till you go to sleep, and you know me and joe are only next door so you're really safe"

Lily tried to get comfy and closed her eyes, while Rachel stroked her hair as she knew this normally relaxed her. After a few minutes lily did end up going back to sleep, so Rachel kissed her gently in the forehead before leaving.

She then went back down and went and sat back down with Rosie and joe.

After an hour or so Rachel decided to get Rosie off to bed as it was getting pretty late and she had school the next day.

"Come on time for bed, get yourself sorted I'll be up in a few minutes to say goodnight"

Rosie sighed and reluctantly got out of her chair and went up to bed.

Rachel smiled and shook her head at her, before moving up next to joe

"Was lily okay earlier after you took her back up"

"Not really, but I got her off to sleep, I hope she's okay at school tomorrow, maybe I should let her have tomorrow off, it's Friday afterall, so then she'll have the weekend to fully pull herself round"

"Well that might be an idea, your on that course on the morning, and I'm working from home in the morning so I can look after her then"

"Yeah I don't know what time that course will finish but I've arranged cover for the whole day just in case, but I don't imagine it'll go on past 12 so I'll look after her in the afternoon while you go to work but if I'm not back she can go to my mums"

"Sounds like a plan"

Rachel then got up and went up to Rosie's room, she found her sat up in bed reading her book

"Light out in 15 minutes love"

"Okay, I'll just finish this chapter"

"Right, well I'm just here to say goodnight"

"Night Rachel"

"Night night darling"

Rachel was about to leave her to it when Rosie said "Rachel I have a bit of a bad stomach"

"Really when did that come on?"

"About 15 minutes ago"

"I'll get you some tablets and a glass of water" Rachel said

She went and got them before going back into Rosie's bedroom

"Thanks" she said

"I wonder why that's come on" Rachel said

"I don't know"

"It's not your period is it?"

"No" Rosie said cheeks flushing as she always did feel very embarrassed if ever Rachel brought it up, which she didn't much because she knew it did embarrass her

"Well I wouldn't be surprised if you came on again soon"

"But I've only had one and you said it could be months before I had another one"

"Well it could be, but then again it might only be a few weeks, there's no telling really" Rachel said

Rosie thought for a moment before saying "Rach you know you were quite young too when you started, did you tell any of your friends"

"Yeah I think I told a few of my close friends yeah, it's nothing to be ashamed of you know love"

"I know, I just don't think I'd want people knowing about it, not even people I'm close with"

"Well it's not compulsory to tell people if you don't feel comfortable, I just don't want you thinking it's anything embarrassing"

Although she'd never admit it Rosie did sometimes like having these chats with Rachel as she was the one person she could be open with if she needed to, even if she did sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable.

"Miss said that in our PSHE lesson today"

"Well she's right isn't she"

"I guess she is, but she's always really open about everything it's weird"

"I think that's a good thing, what sort of things do you do with her?"

"You know just stuff" Rosie said looking uncomfortable again "like sex ed and things"

"Ah, well you know if ever you do have any questions that you don't feel comfortable asking in lessons you can always come to me with them"

Rosie pulled a face despite how close her and Rachel had become the thought of coming to her with some of the things they covered in lessons, didn't particularly appeal to her.

Rachel saw the look on Rosie's face and couldn't help but laugh

"I know I get it, the thought of talking to a thirty something year old woman about all these things is pretty horrendous, but I was your age once you know and I do work with people your age, so I just want you to know if ever you do need to talk I am here"

Rosie suddenly wrapped her arms round Rachel and snuggled into her

"Why all the sudden affection"

"I love you Rachel"

"I love you too, and I hope you know that"

Rachel didn't know why Rosie had gone all soppy all of a sudden however she wasn't complaining.

"Now I think it's time you get off to sleep"

"Okay, I guess I do feel a bit tired now"

Rachel smiled before flicking the light off and closing her door.

She was just about to go down when she saw lily running across the landing and into the bathroom. She sighed because she really did think she'd got her settled earlier.

"Lily are you okay?" Rachel asked

"Yes"

"What are you doing? Are you just having a wee"

"Yes"

"Can I come in?"

"okay"

Rachel opened the door and saw lily sat on the toilet looking all pale and shivery

"What's up love are you not feeling very well?"

"I woke up and my tummy was hurting loads and I felt sick"

"Oh dear, well you know why it is it'll be because of how upset and tired you've been"

"My tummy really hurts"

"Well I'll fill a hot water bottle up that might help" Rachel said "when you're done come back to your room"

Rachel closed the bathroom door again and went and got Lily's hot water bottle

"what you doing Rach?"

"Lily's got a bad stomach" Rachel explained "I'm getting her a hot water bottle"

She then went back upstairs and saw lily in bed

"You feeling any better?"

Lily shook her head

"Please will you Come in with me, so I can go to sleep"

"Yep" Rachel said

She then got into bed next to lily and put her hot water bottle against her stomach.

"Rachel, I'm sorry"

"What for love?"

"I know I'm being a baby and I'm sorry for having nightmares and waking you and joe up" lily cried

"Oh sweetheart none of this Is your fault, and me and joe don't mind it's what we're here for"

"I just feel bad"

"Well you've no need to feel bad, come on darling get some sleep" Rachel said

She then turned the light off and wrapped her arms around lily, once she could hear her snoring she got out and went downstairs.

Lily seemed to sleep really well in the end and by the time she woke up Rachel had left for her course and had dropped Rosie off at school on the way, so it was just her and joe in the house.

She put her big furry slippers on and got her dressing gown and went across the landing to the bathroom.

Once she'd been to the toilet she went downstairs and saw joe in the kitchen.

"Hiya darling" joe said picking the little girl up in his arms

"Joe where's Rachel?"

"She's gone out for her course, you've had quite a long lie in it's nearly 9 now, but she'll be back again for lunchtime" joe said before putting lily down on the floor.

"Please can I have some milk"

"Yep I'll do your breakfast now, is pancakes alright?"

Lily nodded her head, she loved it when they did pancakes as a treat as they always had been her favourite right from when she was little.

Lily waited at the table while joe got her pancakes ready.

As soon as he put them down on the table she ate them up really quickly.

"Joe please could we make a cake"

"Yeah, that'd be nice we can surprise Rachel with it when she comes in"

"Do I have to get dressed"

"No just keep your pyjamas on if you want and put an apron on"

Joe found Rachel's apron and put it on lily, and then burst out laughing when he realised just how big it was on her.

"I don't think we'll bother with that, you'll end up breaking your leg tripping over it"

Lily laughed and took it off before going over to help joe get all the stuff ready.

"Can we make it a chocolate cake?"

"Sure"

They seemed to spend quite a lot of there morning making it as somehow they kept getting it wrong, but eventually they seemed to manage it.

"Joe I know I'm off school so I'm not meant to, but please can I watch some tv"

"Yeah just don't tell Rachel"

Joe smiled as he watched her go, glad that she seemed to be acting more like her usual self again.

When Rachel got home at about 12:30 joe had to dash off more or less straight away to get to work.

Lily had been up in her room playing with some of her toys when she heard Rachel come in, so ran down the stairs

"Hiya darling" she said smiling at her.

She then noticed that she was still in her pyjamas

"What's all this 12:30 and still in your pyjamas"

"Sorry, we were making a cake for you and I forgot to get cha she'd after"

"Yes I saw that downstairs, it looked like the two of you did a fantastic job, I'll have a slice in a minute while I have my coffee"

Rachel then started getting her some clothes out the draw.

"Come on get those pyjamas off"

Lily quickly took them off and Rachel helped her get changed.

"Please will you play on the wii with me"

"Let me get changed out my work stuff and have a coffee then I will yeah"

Once Rachel was changed into her comfortable things she went downstairs with lily, she noticed she seemed a lot happier than she had done for the last week which she was really glad about as she had been pretty worried.

Rachel was having her coffee and cake but Lily seemed really lively and restless

"What's joe been giving you? Blue smarties or something"

"No but he let me have coke and lemonade and orange all mixed together"

Rachel made a face at this "yuck what a horrible combination"

"It was really nice"

"It doesn't sound it! What made you have that anyway"

" I couldn't decide which one, so I asked joe if I could mix them and he laughed and said yes"

"Well I shall be having words with joe about that, and if I were you I wouldn't be bouncing round I don't want you throwing up all over the carpet"

Lily laughed but decided to go and sit down on Rachel's knee

"It's nice to see you smiling again anyway sweetheart"

"I feel loads better now, I think it's because I had a really long sleep"

"Well that would have helped I bet, I was thinking, how about we do something this afternoon just the two of us, maybe go for a walk round those woods and have a drink in that little cafe at the end"

Normally lily wasn't that keen on walking however she didn't mind one bit when it was just her and Rachel

"Yeah"

"Well do you want to go in half an hour or so"

"Okay"

After a while Rachel got lily into her coat and the two of them got in the car.

She'd thought it would be a good idea for her to get some fresh air, as she'd barely left the house since Monday, which was why she'd suggested they go for a walk.

The woods were a good 20 minutes drive away so lily quite enjoyed having a little relax in the car on the way there.

"Come on then love, out we get"

Once they were out Rachel took Lily's hand and together they started walking round.

"So do you feel a lot better today"

"Yeah, I didn't have a nightmare last night once you'd been in"

"That's great sweetheart, I know how horrible this nightmares have been, I remember when I was a little girl how scared I used to get whenever I had a bad dream"

"I hate it, especially when I'm sick or something because of it"

"It's horrible getting that scared it really is but I'm so glad you're feeling a little bit better today"

They walked for a bit longer neither of them saying that much, it was just nice to be in each other's company for a bit.

"Rachel when are we going out for the meal"

"Well we've got to be there for 7, but we should probably all start getting ready as soon as Rosie gets in from school"

"Can I wear my new dress"

"Yeah that'll look nice I think"

After quite a long walk they reached the end so they went in the little cafe, Rachel knew how much lily liked it there as she always got excited whenever she told her they were going

"Do you want something to eat darling, only don't have too much because I don't want you not have an appetite later"

"Please can I have the soup"

"It's vegetable are you sure you'll like it?"

"Actually can I just get a ham sandwich"

"Okay" Rachel said laughing, knowing the sound of the word vegetable would put lily right off.

Lily went and sat down while Rachel got them some drinks and ordered there food

"Is coke okay"

"Yeah"

"Maybe I should have asked for it mixed with orange and lemonade"

Lily laughed at this before putting her straw in the coke and sipping it.

Eventually the food came and both Rachel and lily were quite hungry by now so they were glad when it came.

Once they'd finished Rachel put her coat on and helped lily put hers on.

"Can I go to the toilet before we go back?"

"Yeah let's see if we can find some"

Rachel went and asked of they were any in the cafe and found out there wasn't

"There's nine around love, we'll see if we can find some outside"

"It's okay i can hold on"

"Are you sure it'll be quite a while before we get home again"

"Yeah I'll be fine"

"Okay but you must tell me if you get desperate"

They then walked back to the car and started driving home but ended up getting stuck in a massive traffic jam.

"It's almost 3:15 we need to be at Rosie's school to pick her up by half past" Rachel sighed "we won't be able to go home I'm afraid"

"I really need a wee now"

"I know love just try and hang on"

"But what I'd I can't?"

"It's not the end of the world, just try"

By the time they arrived at Rosie's school they were quite late for her and lily was absolutely desperate for the loo.

"Oh come on Rosie where are you" Rachel sighed when Rosie still hadn't come out

Eventually Rosie came out and went to the car.

"Why are you so late"

"Sorry i had to have a quick word with my tutor about something"

"What about?"

"Nothing important"

"Well what then"

"For gods sake why do you always have to be so nosy I said it was nothing important"

"Don't speak to me like that please, I want to know what was going on"

Rosie really couldn't be bothered to explain now, she hadn't really had the best of days and although she liked how caring Rachel was sometimes she did just wish she wasn't as bothered about these sort of things as she always was.

"I'll tell you later" Rosie said "hi lily" she said turning and smiling at her little sister

"Hi" lily said " Rachel I really have to go"

"I know lily but there's really not a lot I can do at the moment my love"

"Where have you been" Rosie asked

"We went all round those woods and we went to the little cafe"

"Aw you could have gone when I was there, the cakes in there are lovely"

Rachel had felt a bit bad going without her earlier as she knew how much she liked it there.

"Well we can go again with you some other time"

"Are we nearly home now Rachel" lily asked

"Yep we won't be long I promise" Rachel said

Lily tried really hard to hold on but she'd been waiting ages and in the end she couldn't hold on any longer and felt her trousers go wet and suddenly the seat went wet too.

They had just got in the drive and Rachel noticed lily crying.

So went to help her out and realised what had happened

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to" lily sobbed

"Don't worry love, it wasn't your fault, let's go and get you changed" Rachel said "Rosie can you clean this seat up for me love"

"Ew no" Rosie said

"It's leather it won't take long"

"Just give me all the nice jobs why don't you" Rosie sighed

Rachel took Lily's hand and led her upstairs.

"We may as well get you in the bath now, you're going to need one anyway and that way you can freshen up a bit"

"I really am sorry"

"Oh it's not worth worrying about, it's no wonder really we were stuck in that traffic jam for ages and anyway it's not like it happens often is it?"

"No"

Lily quickly took her things off while Rachel ran the bath for her.

Once it was ready she stepped straight in.

"Am I having my hair washed tonight"

"Yep, may as well"

Rachel then got a jug of water and lured it over her head till her hair was all wet, and then massaged shampoo in.

Once she was done Rachel got one of the warm towels off the radiator and wrapped it round her.

"Go and wait in my bedroom and I'll be along in a couple of minutes to dry your hair off"

Rachel then went downstairs to check on Rosie

She found her in the living room eating a bag of crips

"Did you clean the seat like I asked?"

"Yes but please don't ever ask me to do that again it's minging"

"Well someone has to do it don't they? Anyway stop being such a drama queen"

"I'd hardly call it that"

"Well I would, anyway once I'm done with lily you and I need a talk"

"Can you please not just leave it Rachel"

"No I can't" she said before leaving the living room

She then went back upstairs to see lily.

Once she'd finished drying her hair she went through to Lily's bedroom with her.

She'd already got out the dress so she helped lily get into it.

"We made a good choice getting that, it looks lovely on you" Rachel said

She brushed Lily's long blonde hair and put a Alice band in it.

"Beautiful" Rachel said smiling "now you're all ready you can go and play for a bit just don't get that dress mucky whatever you do"

"I won't"

"Good girl"

Rachel then shouted Rosie to come up and reluctantly she did.

Even Rachel laughed when she saw the look on Rosie's face

"Hey I'm not that bad... I won't torture you promise" she said laughing "come through to your room"

Rosie sighed but followed Rachel up and sat on her bed with her

"Right so what happened today"

"I got into trouble"

"Well that's not what I like to hear, what for?"

"Do I really have to tell ..."

"Yes" Rachel said cutting her off

"Well me and Katie and jasmine all had an argument in form and miss shouted at us because we were shouting at each other across the classroom and then I accidentally told Katie to piss off and .."

"Hang on how do you accidentally tell someone to piss off?"

"Well I don't know it just sort of came out, but then she sent all of us outside and then me and jasmine ..." Rosie began but suddenly she burst into tears

"Carry on"

"Please don't make me tell"

"Look I'm not the most unreasonable woman on earth just tell me"

"We had a fight, she hit me and then I hit her back and it just sort of went from there and then miss came out and broke us apart and sent us to isolation for the rest of the day"

"Well I hope you realise how unacceptable that is"

"I do but she started it"

"I don't care who started it, you were involved and the very last thing I want you involved in is fights"

"I'm sorry"

"I'm ashamed of you Rosie I thought you knew better than to..." Rachel said however then she saw how upset Rosie was "anyway whatever I say it's not going to change it but I really do hope you realise why it was so out of order"

"Honestly I do"

"And if ever hear of anything like this again ... Believe me your going to seriously regret it"

"I know"

"I really do mean that, and I also really mean that your grounded for two weeks and yes that does include Chloe's birthday sleepover next week"

"But Rachel ..."

"You're not seriously going to challenge it are you, you're very lucky it wasn't 3 times longer"

"I know"

"Right well I'll say no more about it but I mean it no repeats"

"There won't be promise"

"Good, now go and have your shower" Rachel said

Rosie smiled at her before going in her en suite for her shower.

When she was on the toilet she realised she'd come on her period and didn't have any pads left in her en suite, she decided to have her shower and then ask Rachel if she had any.

Once she'd had her shower she wrapped a towel round herself and went downstairs and into the kitchen.

She got a surprise when joe was down there too, obviously having just got in from work and she began to feel a bit embarrassed stood there in just a towel.

"What is it love?" Rachel asked

"I need to talk to you"

"Okay, what's wrong"

"No like ...in private"

Rachel sighed before following Rosie upstairs

"So what's up and if you're going to try and persuade me to unground you, you've got another thing coming"

"No it's not that, erm I've got my period again do you have any pads" she asked cheeks flushing a bit

"Yeah of course but don't you have some in your bathroom"

"I thought I did but I must have used them all last time"

"I'll get you some more tomorrow then love" Rachel said "come with me I'll get you some"

Rosie followed Rachel into her bathroom and Rachel went in her cupboard and got her quite a few out

"There should be enough there, but if you need anymore, or run out again just come in here and get some you don't have to ask"

"Okay thanks Rach"

"Do you need any paracetamol"

"Yes please"

"That might explain why you got so easily upset at school today, not that it's an excuse!"

"I know"

Once Rosie and sorted herself out she looked through her clothes and found a nice dress to wear even though she knew Rachel always disapproved when she wore it because it was quite short. When she put it on she decided to put a little bit of tissue down her bra, hoping no one would notice, but she really wanted to make it look like she had more of a figure as she was still quite flat chested.

Rachel came into her room about 15 minutes later to ask if she wanted to borrow her perfume.

"Yes please, I love the one you've got"

"Well you never know, Santa might have taken note of that" Rachel said

"Really?" Rosie said getting excited as she'd always loved it but when she'd seen it in a shop once and realised how much it was she didn't dare ask for it.

"Well I don't know do I, I'm not Santa" she said causing Rosie to laugh

"I'm not Lily's age Rachel, I haven't believed in Santa since I was about 10"

"Well then don't complain when you get, a sack full of soot on Christmas Day" Rachel said laughing "though you might be on the naughty list anyway after today"

"Well you might be on the naughty list for grounding me"

"Well neither of us are going to have a very good Christmas Day then are we?"

" I guess not" Rosie said " Rachel how do you do Christmas here"

"Well it's weird because obviously we've never had kids and I don't think it's half as special when you don't, I mean obviously we have all Mel's kids round and joes sisters little girl on the afternoon but it's not quite the same"

"I've always wanted a really nice Christmas Day, for lily really" Rosie said but then suddenly her eyes started filling with tears

"Hey" Rachel said gently

She then edged closer to her and put her arm round her.

"Sorry it's just I remember last Christmas lily had only just turned 3 so it was the first Christmas she was properly aware of and she'd got so excited, and on Christmas Eve she couldn't stop smiling and it took her ages to get off to sleep but then when she woke up she ran downstairs but dad caught up with her and hit her for getting up so early and told her she wasn't getting any presents anyway because she'd been too bad, so she spent the whole day crying"

Hearing this made tears start to fill in Rachel's eyes too, she squeezed Rosie's shoulders supportively

"Poor lily, you know what though?"

"What?"

"We're going to make sure she has the most amazing day ever and you too, even if it does mean we're out of pocket for a bit"

"Rachel if I tell you something do you promise you won't hate me for it"

"I can't promise I won't be disappointed but yes I promise I won't hate you"

"Well you know last Christmas I knew dad wouldn't have got lily anything and I really wanted to surprise her, it doesn't take much to get her excited and I saw this toy teddy in this shop and I grabbed it and ran out the shop, we didn't have any money and if I did I promise I wouldn't have I just wanted her to have something to open"

"Oh love" Rachel whispered feeling all choked up "how could I be mad at you for that? I'd never ever judge you for anything that happened while you were with your dad I promise, I know what a difficult and horrible time you had of it. I'm not condoning stealing but when you had the reasons you did well ..."

Rosie wrapped her arms round Rachel and gave her a massive hug

"Come on then, you look lovely tonight darling"

"So do you" Rosie said truthfully, Rachel really didn't look anything like Rachel when she'd curled her hair and put a nice dress on, she always looked lovely and pretty but when she was dressed up she looked so young and not one bit like a head teacher.

Rachel looked at her properly and realised she must have put something down her top.

"I must say I'm not going a bundle on the boob job you seemed to have had since I last saw you" Rachel said causing Rosie to giggle.

"Sorry" she said

"Take them out will you" she said laughing

"Fine" Rosie sighed pulling the tissue out.

The two of them then went downstairs to join joe and went out to the car.

They all finished up having a really nice evening out, however lily was shattered by the end of it and finished up falling asleep on Rachel's lap in the restaurant, so as soon as they got home Rachel got her into some pyjamas and put her straight into bed.

Please review xxxxxxx


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

It was really late on a Thursday night when Rosie woke up. She hadn't had a very good sleep anyway as her and Rachel had a bit of a falling out earlier as Rosie had ended up staying out much later than she was meant to so obviously Rachel wasn't very happy. However now she had a really bad stomach ache.

When she staggered out of bed she realised there was blood all over her sheets so she must have come on her period over night and leaked everywhere, which she felt really embarrassed about as it had never happened before.

She had to get up quickly and went straight to the bathroom and got herself some fresh pyjamas so she could get herself sorted.

Once she was fine she dragged her sheet off the bed and started to go downstairs with it, however Rachel had got up to go to the loo but had heard Rosie get out of bed to check, she knew half the time when they got out they'd probably just be going to the loo or getting a drink but she did like to check to make sure they were okay.

She followed Rosie down the stairs and saw her go into the kitchen.

"Rosie are you okay?" She asked sounding a bit worried

"Erm I ...I..." She stammered but she did still always feel embarrassed talking about this sort of thing "I need to change my bed sheet"

"Why sweetheart" Rachel asked

When Rosie didn't respond she flicked the light on

"Oh I see" Rachel said "pass it here, I'll chuck it in the wash"

Rosie quickly part it to Rachel before going into the back room and bursting into tears as she felt really upset and embarrassed

When Rachel had out it in the wash she went over and sat by her

"Hey don't be upset it's okay" she said

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to get it dirty" she said

"Of course you didn't love, it's alright it'll wash" Rachel soothed even if she was a bit angry with Rosie about what had happened earlier she was still quite worried about her now and hated seeing her so upset

"It's so embarrassing" Rosie sighed "why do I have to be a bloody girl"

"I know it's a nightmare but there's no need to get embarrassed there's only me that knows anything about it darling and I don't make you feel embarrassed do I love?"

Rosie shrugged but then shook her head

"no I guess not" she sighed

"So don't you be worrying about it then my love, just forget it ever happened" she said before kissing her on the cheek

Rosie relaxed before snuggling into Rachel properly, she always liked to do this whenever she was feeling a bit upset as it made her feel all relaxed and comforted.

"Rach are you still mad with me about earlier?" Rosie asked

Rachel hadn't meant to get as angry as she did with Rosie, but to was more the fact she kept answering back to her that made her feel annoyed as she hated it when she felt like anyone wasn't showing her any respect

"Not mad, I am disappointed though"

"Which basically means your mad" rosie said "surely I'm not the first person to stay out a bit late" she sighed, she couldn't help but feel sometimes Rachel was a bit too harsh about these things

"I dare say you're not, but you need to know when you've overstepped the line, and the way you were talking to me earlier was totally unacceptable you just realise that Rosie, and I won't have it not in my house"

"ok I know it was wrong but I was just annoyed"

"Well we'll talk about it some more tomorrow"

Rachel didn't really want to be talking about this now as both her and Rosie were quite tired so she didn't want to finish up in another argument

"Am I grounded?"

"Yep" Rachel replied simply

"Even though it's Josie's sleepover tomorrow"

Rachel rolled her eyes she knew how much Rosie had been looking forward to it so did feel really mean stopping her from going but she also didn't want to relent straight away

"Well we'll need to see about that won't we"

"So that means I can go"

"I said we'll see" Rachel said

She then thought for a moment before saying "you know what I really would like to know Rosie?"

"What" Rosie asked sounding a little suspicious

"Why you were actually so late"

"I've already told you Rach" Rosie said

"Yeah you lost track of time, I want the real reason though because I don't buy all that and you know I can tell when you're lying"

Rosie sighed she really didn't want to have to explain but by the looks of it she didn't have much choice as it was true, Rachel could always tell when she was lying.

"Ok I'll tell you, but not if it's going to make you go off on one again"

"Well if it's that bad I cent promise I won't be a bit angry but I'll try my best not to go "off on one", well providing you're not about to tell me you and your little friends attempted to rob a bank or something"

Rosie laughed at this before saying "no not quite"

"Well that's a relief, go on then tell me why you were so late"

"We met up with some boys and we were just hanging round with them for ages"

"Rosie you're 12 years old" Rachel exclaimed

"And that doesn't stop me having boys as friends does it?"

"Well no providing that's all they are young lady"

"I won't tell you if you're going to be like that"

"I'm sorry go on love, I'll try my best not to say anything else"

"Well anyway we ended up going back to one of their houses and it seemed rude to say I wanted to go back home, and if suppose I didn't want to seem like a little kid"

Rachel could understand what Rosie meant and she knew at her age it was so important to try and fit in

"But the thing is Rosie you still are a kid really, and that means you need someone looking out for you, I do know and I do understand exactly how you felt but I wouldn't be doing a very good job of looking after you would I if I just let you stay out till whenever you felt like there does need to be some boundaries my love"

"I know and I really am sorry, I'll try not to let it happen again"

"Okay, well considering it's extremely late and we've both got to be up early tomorrow I think it'd be a very good idea if we say no more about it for now and head back up to bed okay"

"Okay" Rosie mumbled giving Rachel a big cuddle

They stayed cuddled up for a moment or so but then they got up, but just as they did the living room door flung open

Rachel turned round and saw lily stood there in floods of tears

She immediately rushed over to her and picked her up

"Lily what's up love"

"I couldn't find you anywhere" lily sobbed

"Oh darling I'm sorry, I haven't been in my bedroom me and Rosie have been having a little chat down here"

Lily didn't say anything just wrapped her arms tightly around her

Rachel was a bit worried as lily seemed to be crying quite a bit so was obviously quite upset

"Rosie go up to bed, I'll be up soon to check your asleep"

"But what about lily"

"Don't worry about your sister love, me and her are going to have a nice cuddle and a chat aren't we lily"

Lily didn't say anything just continued to cling to Rachel.

Rachel gestured to Rosie for her to go upstairs so she did.

Rachel sighed as she got lily sat down on her knee, she was feeling really tired now and wanted her bed but obviously she wouldn't dream of sending lily back to bed when she was this upset before she had a chance to find out what was going on, she just hoped it wasn't too serious

"Now what's happened darling"

"I had a bad dream, and I feel really poorly"

"What happened on your dream"

"I ...I can't remember" lily stammered

"Okay, but there's nothing to be frightened of now is there love, look you're at home nice and safe, and my rooms right next door to yours so no one would even hurt you"

"Okay" lily said through tears

"So how do you feel poorly then?"

"I ...um... I've got a tummy ache and a head ache" lily said

"Have you love, that's come on suddenly you were fine earlier, do you feel like you're going to be sick"

"No" lily said

"Where does your tummy hurt?" Rachel asked

Lily pointed to all round her tummy

"Do you need some medicine" Rachel asked sounding a little doubtful as this did all seem to have come on very suddenly and she didn't really want to give her medicine if she didn't need it

Lily shook her head

"Okay well maybe just try sleeping on your tummy that might help a bit"

"Okay" lily said

"Do you think you can try going back to sleep for me then?"

Lily knew she wouldn't be able to go to sleep if she tried now and hated lying in bed alone when she was worried and frightened

"I don't want to go back to my own room" lily cried "please let me sleep in your bed with you"

Rachel sighed but didn't want to send her back to bed if she was still upset

"Right okay, just this once since joes away with work so there's plenty of room"

"Thank you Rachel" lily said before giving a big cuddle

Rachel carried her back upstairs and into her room

They were about to get into bed when lily said "Rachel I know it's really late but please can I go to your toilet before I go to sleep"

"Yes of course you can" she said

Lily went into Rachel's ensuite as soon as she sat down on the toilet more tears started falling down her face and she couldn't seem to make them stop, but didn't really want Rachel to see as she knew she'd ask loads of questions, so she just stayed sitting on the toilet crying for a while.

Rachel was almost asleep when she suddenly realised lily still hadn't come back from the toilet so quickly got out of bed and went across to it

"Lily are you okay in there sweetheart?" She asked

"Yes" lily replied

"Are you feeling a bit poorly?"

"Yes" lily said again

"Can I come in love?" She asked gently

"No I won't be long" limy said hastily trying to mop up her tears

"Right just come to bed when you're done then"

A couple of minutes later lily came out and got in beside Rachel so Rachel snuggled up close to her

It didn't take them long to both fall fast asleep

Lily woke early the next morning, she immediately started to feel sick when she realised it was school today and knew she needed a way to get out of it

She'd been awake about 15 minutes when Rachel's alarm went off

As soon as she heard it Rachel quickly went to turn it off not wanting it to wake lily up, but then she realised lily was already awake

"Lily what are you doing awake at this time sweetie"

"I feel sick again"

Rachel sighed, if lily kept this up she knew she'd have to keep her off today but she just didn't seem that Ill to her

"Again? you told me you didn't feel sick when I asked last night"

"I ...I feel really sick now though and I'm all hot"

Rachel put her hand to Lily's forehead but she didn't feel that hot

"Hmm you don't feel hot" she said

Lily didn't know what to do, she couldn't go in today but she could tell Rachel didn't really believe her

"Lily look at me" Rachel said "now I want you to promise you're telling me the truth about feeling poorly"

"I promise" lily said but then she immediately began to panic about lying to Rachel and was scared about what she'd do if she found out the truth as she hated lying to her and it made her feel even more upset inside

Rachel didn't know what to do, she knew regardless of whether she was telling the Truth or not lily would keep this up at school and would end up getting sent home, so it would be less trouble just to keep her off and make arrangements now

"Right well if you stay off, you're not to play any games or get any toys out all day, you'll be in bed okay"

Rachel then had to ring around a bit to try and find someone to look after her but it seemed no one could so she'd just have to take her in with her

"Are you sure you're not well enough to give it a try, you'll just be stuck in my office all day and you'll be very bored"

"I do feel really poorly"

"Okay my office it is then" Rachel sighed

Once she'd had a shower and got dressed she went into Rosie's room to wake her up, she didn't bother knocking and just walked straight in but to her surprise she was already up but she just had her underwear on

"Rachel!" Rosie screamed before practically pushing her out the room

"I'm sorry I didn't realise you weber getting changed"

"Well can you at least knock on the bloody door in future"

Rachel rolled her eyes but didn't say anything, she knew how self conscious Rosie was at the moment even in front of Rachel so could understand why she wouldn't want people walking in on her.

After a while they all got in the car and they went to drop Rosie off

"Bye love have a nice day" Rachel called but like always first thing on a morning Rosie wasn't in a very nice mood so just slammed the car door shut and scowled

"Well wasn't that a lovely goodbye"

She then drove to school and carried lily in with her as she felt a bit shy with all the other kids

Lily seemed to cause quite a bit of disruption though as lots of them wanted to know who she was and everyone said how cute she was.

Eventually though they managed to make it to Rachel's office

"Right I've got lots of work to do so you just have a lie down on that sofa over there and let me get on please"

Lily was so glad not to be at her own school she went straight over and did exactly as Rachel told her.

She was as good as gold all morning and stayed really quiet but just after break time, she suddenly felt really tearful and upset.

She started to cry but tried to brush her tears away, however when Rachel glanced across from her paperwork she saw her doing this so put it down and crouched beside her

"Lily are you okay"

Lily nodded

"Why are you crying then love?"

"I feel poorly again"

"Worse than before"

Lily nodded her head

"Maybe I should see about getting you checked out at a doctors then but in the mean time should I get you a drink of water"

"Yes please"

Rachel went across to her little machine and got her a cup of ice cold water

"Thankyou"

Rachel then went back to her desk and got on with some more work

She ended up having quite a busy morning, as on top of all the paperwork she had to do, like always on a Friday quite a few students finished up getting sent to her so she had to deal with them too.

She ended up having to keep one girl in her office though as she'd refused to go back to her class and had been cheeky to Rachel when she'd spoken to her about it.

Rachel sat her down on the desk near lily and got her to do some work.

As soon as Rachel's back was turned she rolled her eyes and pulled a face at Rachel.

Despite how she was feeling lily couldn't help but burst out laughing at this

The girl then turned to lily and gave a her a warm smile

"Lily I'm going for a walk around to check everything's okay, are you coming with me"

"No I'll stay here"

"Are you sure" Rachel asked as normally lily would feel extremely scared about being with strangers and felt a bit uneasy leaving her with jasmine who had a bit of a bad reputation

Lily nodded so Rachel decided to just leave her

"What are you doing here, you look a bit young to have been sent here too" jasmine joked causing lily to giggle

"No I'm here because I'm poorly"

"Ah are you miss masons daughter then, I never knew she had kids"

"Is miss mason Rachel?" She asked doubtfully as she'd never heard her being called this before

"Yep"

"no she's not my mum but I live with her"

"How come? Why don't you live with you're own mum" she asked nosily

"She's dead and I can't live with dad so I live with Rachel"

"Oh sorry I didn't realise" jasmine said "is she nice to you?"

Lily nodded but then tears started forming in her eyes

"I didn't mean to upset you" jasmine said going and sitting next to lily

"It's okay

"She's alright I suppose, for a teacher I mean"

"She's always nice to me, she's never shouted at me but sometimes she gets a bit cross if I'm really naughty"

"You don't look like you have it in you to be naughty, not like me eh?"

Lily smiled but then she started crying properly so jasmine put an arm round her and much to her surprise lily started crying into her

"What's upset you now, can't be something I've said again"

"No it's just ...I have been really naughty and I don't know what to do"

"What is it you've done?"

"I can't say"

"Sure you can, it can't be that bad and anyway it's not like I'm going to tell is it"

Lily was sort of tempted to say but then suddenly Rachel walked in and was shocked to see lily cuddled I'll to jasmine

"This doesn't look much like work to me jasmine" she said though she wasn't really one bit cross and it was nice to see really

"Sorry miss"

"That's alright" she said "are you feeling poorly again?" She said to lily

"No she's just been telling me all about you miss" jasmine said

"yeah, yeah get on with some work now and I'll do the same"

"Spot anything Interesting on your tour round?"

"Not particularly why"

"Just wondering, you do it everyday like you're expecting to see a mad axe murderer running loose or something when actually you just see a load of boring old classrooms full of kids"

"Work jasmine"

Rachel had to try hard to stop laughing though as jasmine had always been quite funny

About half an hour later Rachel got a call and saw it was from Lily's school so took her phone outside

She seemed to be outside for ages and when she came back in she had quite a serious expression on her face

"Jasmine back to class"

"But I thought you said I had to stay till the end of school"

"I changed my mind"

"Alright see ya miss"

"Well hopefully you won't because you're going to keep you're head down aren't you"

"Yep I'm a good girl me"

"Course you are, and try and stay out of trouble at least till the end of the day"

"Bye lily, hope you feel better soon"

"Jasmine leaving my office doesn't need to turn into a grand farewell you know just grab your stuff"

Jasmine smiled and went out

"Lily me and you are going for a walk outside grab your coat"

Lily noticed Rachel sounded a bit stern so began to feel scared

Once they were outside Rachel said "now I'm going to give you another chance to tell me the truth are you really feeling that poorly"

Lily nodded but then burst into tears

"So is that a no" she asked

"Yes" lily mumbled sounding small

"Why did you lie to me"Rachel asked "pretending to be poorly to get out of school just isn't on lily it really isn't"

Lily was crying quite a bit and couldn't seem to get any words out and she really did feel sick now

"Come and sit down on this bench with me" Rachel said her voice a little gentler now

Lily went and sat down, she was feeling really dizzy now

"You see I was just speaking to your teacher and she tells me she got a feeling you might not be poorly and this mystery illness might have something to do with the fact she wanted a chat with me at the end of the day, so is there any truth in that?"

Lily nodded her head as she bit her nails, something she always did when she was anxious

"Right, so you've been pretending to be poorly so your teacher wouldn't get a chance to talk to me" Rachel asked, she couldn't help but feel sorry for lily especially since she looked so scared so she didn't want to be too harsh on her as she knew this would only do a lot more harm than good and might end up really upsetting lily

"Yes"

"But why darling, surely I'm not that frightening to you"

"I thought you might be angry and I didn't want to get into trouble with you or joe" lily admitted before collapsing into Rachel's chest and having a proper cry into her

"There, it's not that bad, you're alright love no ones angry with you not properly"

"Not even you" lily sobbed

Rachel smiled slightly before whispering "not even me"

"I am sorry"

"I know you are and I also know you wouldn't have pretended if you didn't think you had good reason" Rachel said "now I'm not going to shout or get mad okay, so just you calm yourself down my love" she said stroking her hair gently to relax her

Eventually she stopped crying so sat up and looked at Rachel

"Do you know why she wanted a word hmm?"

Lily shook her head

"I know I must have done something bad because she always tells people's mums if they've been naughty but I can't think what"

"Actually love it wasn't because you've been naughty" Rachel said "and it was certainly nothing to get you worked up about"

"What was it then"

"Well she tells me that you're struggling quite a bit with spellings and some of the number work you've been doing at the moment"

"And you're not angry about that"

"No it's not something you can help, so why would I be angry?"

Lily shrugged her shoulders

"She was just telling me a bit about how you're getting on that's all, and she thinks it might be an idea for me and you to do a bit of extra work at home together just to see if that helps a bit" she said

Lily's teacher had mentioned quite a bit about dyslexia and getting Lily screened for it but she didn't want to upset lily by mentioning this now

"Okay"

"And darling in future please just come to me if you're feeling upset even if you think it might get you in a bit of trouble it's not worth all this promise "

"Okay" lily mumbled

The two of them sat outside for a bit and then went back in, lily now feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off her

Please review xxxxxxx


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Wishing you all a very happy new year ️

This is another lily one, seem to have based most of them on her lately as I'm struggling to think of ones for Rosie so if I have any ideas please let me know

Lily was sat in class, she'd had a really horrible day so far and she kept feeling like she was going to cry but when the other kids saw her they just started laughing.

It had all started a couple of days ago , when some of the other children that she usually played with wouldn't let her join in any of there games any more so she tried to join I'm with some of the others but they were all same, so she was left standing alone in the cold all of break time and at lunch time too.

Lily was really confused and upset by all of this as she really couldn't understand why all her friends were being like this all of a sudden especially when she couldn't think of anything she'd done that would have made them angry with her, and it was beginning to really upset her

They'd finished doing there work and as usual on a Friday the teacher let them have some extra free time.

Lily decided to go over and see if they would talk to her again now.

"Go away, we don't like you" one of the little girls said as soon as lily came over

"Why not?" Lily said starting to cry

"You lie, and you're really horrible"

"No I don't" lily said feeling really confused

"Yes you do, and you're weird because you don't even have a real mummy and my mummy says that's nso you are really weird and no one wants to talk to weird people "

Lily couldn't stand it any longer she hit her hard before pushing her back and causing her to bang her head really hard against the chair.

Lily's teacher saw this and while the classroom assistant sorted the girl out, she took lily outside

"How dare you behave like that in a classroom" she shouted "that could have been really serious, have you got any idea the amount of trouble you're in"

Lily started to cry when she heard this as she hated being in trouble and being shouted at scared her

"I'm sorry" she sobbed l

"Don't even think that even half covers it young lady, you're in serious trouble"

Lily started to cry even more hearing this

"And don't think turning the waterworks on is going to work either"

Lily's teacher was really shocked about all this, normally lily was so quiet and gentle and she'd never even think about being violent

"I want to go home" lily cried

The teacher actually thought this was a pretty good idea as lily was in in fit state to be in school

"Come with me" she ordered

Lily traipsed behind her feeling nervous

She led her to reception and told her to go in mrs James's office, this made lily really frightened as she knew people only ever got sent their if they'd been really bad.

Once Lily's teacher had explained what had happened, mrs James through lily a really stern look and told her to sit on a chair facing the wall.

Lily's teacher then went out into reception and gave Rachel a call to let her know what had happened, after quite a lot of discussion they decided it was best for Rachel to come and get her now.

After speaking to Rachel she went back into mrs James's office

"I've rang Rachel she's going to come and get her now"

"Did you say what happened?" Lily asked fear evident in her voice

"Well of course I did and I can tell you now she's as angry as we are lily"

Lily felt really scared, Rachel was the one person she hated being in trouble with, even if Rachel had just lightly ticked her off for something small it would still really upset her, so she dreaded to think about what she'd have to say about this.

She began to wish she hadn't ask to come home as she'd rather be at school with all the others than have to face Rachel now.

Mrs james sat in silence for a while before looking at lily and realising just how scared she was and did feel a little sorry for her

"Lily you can turn your chair round and face me now"

Lily didn't really want to but knew not to argue so turned round

"Mrs smith says this is really unlike you" she said "what happened"

"I hit her and pushed her back and she hit her head"

"Yes I know that, but what made you do it, to me you don't seem like the type of girl who'd do something like that out of the blue"

"I don't know why" lily lied as more tears fell and her stomach started to go all funny

Mrs jones sighed before getting her a tissue out of her box

"Wipe your face a bit, we can't have your mummy thinking we've tortured you"

Lily took this tissue and tried to wipe her tears up a bit

"She's not my mummy"

"Ah sorry, I remember now" she said

Lily stayed quiet until she heard a knock on the door, she knew it would be Rachel and she suddenly began to feel really sick.

Mrs James opened the door for Rachel and she walked straight in.

As soon as she looked at her,lily could tell Rachel really wasn't happy at all, in fact she couldn't remember seeing her looking so angry before.

"I am so sorry about all this" Rachel said

"It's fine, I know how unlike her it is"

"Well they'll never be a repeat that's for sure" Rachel said "get your stuff" she said to lily

Lily did as she was told

After Rachel had a quick chat with mrs james she left with lily

Lily waited for Rachel to start to shout but she didn't which made things even more scary

"I'm sorry" lily mumbled glancing up at Rachel

"Don't try saying your sorry, how could you do that to someone"

"I don't know"

"What do you mean you don't know? You have an idea about what's right and wrong don't you" Rachel asked but lily just stared at the ground

"Look at me while I'm talking to you" she said pulling her head towards her

Lily looked at Rachel but just couldn't get any words out and just continued to cry

"And you can stop that crying too it's not going to soften me up"

Lily tried hard to stop her crying, she was shocked at how Rachel was talking to her, she'd never ever spoken to her like this before

"Get in the car" Rachel said icily

Lily got in and Rachel strapped her in

Lily didn't say anything the whole way back and neither did Rachel, they both just sat in silence.

Eventually Rachel said "why did you do it?"

Lily didn't know what to say to this, she really didn't want to explain

"So there's no reason, you just felt like pushing someone back and hitting them"

Lily nodded her head

"You really are in serious trouble lily. You do realise I've had to come away from work because of this"

Lily couldn't get any words out at all, her mouth felt dry and horrible

As there was only 10 minutes left at school Rachel decided to just drive back home with lily.

When they got back they got out and went inside.

Lily waited in the hall not really sure what to do

"Go up to your room and don't even think about coming out"

Lily went up to her bedroom and laid on her bed, and sobbed,she grabbed her teddy and cried into it as this always did make her feel a little comforted.

She closed her eyes as all her crying had worn her out and within moments she was asleep.

Rachel waited about 20 minutes before going up to Lily's room, however when she went in she saw her fast asleep.

She hadn't the heart to wake her up and seeing her now cuddling up to her teddy looking no older than about 3 made her realise she'd handled it way too harshly, after all lily was sill a little kid and didn't deserve to be shouted at like she had, regardless of what she'd done.

Rachel sighed, lily was still in her school stuff so she gently tried to ease her out of them and get her changed into some pyjamas, she was surprised that she'd managed to do this without waking her.

Once she'd done this she chucked her school clothes in the wash before going back into her room and stroking Lily's hair, she knew she couldn't feel her but she felt like she had to soothe her when she looked so upset.

Rachel stayed like that for ages until eventually lily stirred, as soon as she did Rachel stopped as she wasn't prepared to let her get away with it that easily.

She couldn't help but feel bad, when lily opened her eyes and suddenly looked terrified when she saw Rachel next to her.

"Rachel" she whispered

"Yeah"

"I feel sick" lily said truthfully, when she woke up she really did feel terrible

"Lily pretending to be sick isn't going to get you out of trouble"

"I'm not pretending"

"I think you're enough bother already young lady without lying as well"

Lily decided not to say anything else

"Right downstairs with me, joes just got in and he knows all about it too"

Lily got out of bed and noticed she was in pyjamas

"Did you change me?"

"I needed to out your school uniform in the wash so yes I did"

When they were walking across the hallway lily said "Rachel I have to go to the toilet, please can I go"

"Yes go on, but then you come straight downstairs and I mean that"

Lily went inside and as soon as she did she felt really sick and dizzy. She went to the toilet, before leaning against the bath, as she felt poorly and was too scared to go down.

By now Rosie had come back home so joined Rachel and joe in the living room.

Rachel quickly told her what happened and Rosie was quite shocked

"But lily wouldn't do that"

"Well she did" Rachel said "where can she have got to, I'll go up and get her now, she won't want to come downstairs though"

"Rachel can I get her?" Rosie asked

Rachel nodded so Rosie went up

She knocked on the bathroom door

"Lil let me in" Rosie said

When she heard it was her sister lily got up and went to the door

Rosie felt like crying when she saw her sister looking so shaken up.

She took her to the nearest spare room and put her on her knee

It felt nice for lily to have someone being kind to her after the horrible day she'd had and not shout at her.

"Are you mad with me too Rosie"

"Not mad, but what were you thinking lily"

"I don't know"

Lily stayed crying into Rosie for a few minutes before Rosie sat her up

"Go and see Rachel and joe now"

"I can't they'll shout"

"Yeah they probably will, you must know you've been naughty, but they won't hurt you will they?"

Lily shrugged her shoulders

"Lil you know neither of them would ever touch you, just let them get it out their system then come and see me, you'll be fine"

Reluctantly lily got up and went down into the living room.

She felt really dizzy when she saw them both staring at her when she walked in and sat down

"Lily Rachel told me what happened" joe said "you must have known why it was wrong"

"I'm really really sorry"

"Lily but saying sorry doesn't change what's happened does it"

Lily shook her head

They both tried talking to her for a while though neither of them were really shouting but it was obvious lily was too frightened to say anything so they decided to leave it.

"Go on then lily, back to your room" Rachel sighed

Lily went back upstairs and stayed in bed till about 6 when Rachel came up

She gently stirred her awake again

"Do you want some tea"

"No"

"Look I know you think everyone's mad with you and you're in lots of trouble, and I guess in some ways that's true, but you do need to eat"

"I'm not hungry"

"Are you sure, you didn't eat any of your lunch either I checked in your bag"

Lily turned away from Rachel but she could hear her sobbing again

"Come on, come and have some diner I promise no one will say anything about it over diner"

"I'm okay"

Rachel sighed but realised that she couldn't exactly force her to eat

"Right, I'll be up to do your bath shortly"

Once they'd had tea Rachel ran Lily's bath and shouted her through"

Lily got out of bed and went into the bathroom.

Rachel took her pyjamas off for her and got her in

"Look lily, I'm sorry for shouting so much earlier it was wrong of me okay"

Lily didn't say anything just stared in the bath

"You can talk to me or joe even if you are in trouble if you're worried you know"

"I know"

Rachel finished washing her before getting her out and back into some pyjamas before getting her sorted for bed

"Oh lily please don't be so frightened of me" Rachel begged as she out the covers over lily

"Okay" lily mumbled

"Do you want a story before bed, or a drink of warm milk or something" Rachel asked as she really did feel terrible sending her to bed in this state

"No thank you"

Rachel sighed before giving her a soft kiss on the cheek and turning out the light.

At about 11 lily woke up again she had a really bad tummy ache now, normally she would have gone and asked Rachel for some medicine but she was too scared so she got out of bed and went downstairs realising she'd have to find it herself.

She tried jumping up to reach the handle of the medicine cupboard but she couldn't so she dragged a chair and climbed up herself.

She couldn't read properly yet but she recognised the calpol bottle and somehow managed to undo the childproof lock on it, it was nearly a full bottle she put it to her lips and had few sips, it tasted really nice to her and whenever Rachel gave it to her she'd always beg her for more, but this time nothing was stopping her so she finished up having about 3/4 of the bottle.

Lily then went back to bed and went to sleep straight away.

She woke again in a few hours but this time her stomach really was terrible and she could barely walk.

She staggered across to Rachel's room as tears ran down her face.

She felt scared of her still but didn't know what else to do.

She shook her hoping she'd wake up

Rachel woke with a start and jumped when she saw lily next to her.

"Lily?" Rachel said gently "what you doing in here?"

Lily stood there crying and shivering unable to respond, a few moments later she was sick all over Rachel's bed

Rachel quickly flicked the light on and saw how pale and sweaty she was

"Oh my god, lily what's wrong, where does it hurt"

"My tummy and I feel sick and horrible and I'm cold" lily sobbed

"Joe wake up" Rachel shouted

Joe quickly woke up and saw what was going on

"Lily is this because you've got yourself all worked up" Rachel asked

"No, I just feel really poorly" lily cried

Rachel put her hand to Lily's forehead

"Oh joe she's burning up"

"Let's get her downstairs, it's cooler"

Rachel lifted lily up in her arms and carried her down

"Joe get some calpol"

Joe went in the medicine cupboard and got the bottle out but then realised it was basically empty

"Is there another bottle, it's empty"

"It can't be I bought it just last week and she hadn't been sick since then" Rachel said, she then walked over to joe and saw that it was empty

"I had some earlier. I was too scared to get you so I got it myself"

"Bloody hell" Rachel whispered "did you drink the whole bottle, you didn't spill any"

"Yes"

"We need to get her to hospital and quickly" joe said

"You stay, I'll take her down" Rachel said

Before long she had lily in the car and they were driving off

"Oh lily" Rachel sighed "why on earth didn't you get me to get the medicine for you"

"I was scared" lily sobbed "am I going to die"

"No sweetheart, but medicine can be very very dangerous if you have too much that's why you must always get me"

"I thought you were mad with me"

"Darling do you really think I have it in me to actually stay mad at you, even if I'm acting it" Rachel Said "let's concentrate on getting you better"

They were getting pretty close to the hospital when lily suddenly started feeling really bad

"I feel like I'm going to be sick"she said

Rachel had brought a lot of bags with her in case this happened so quickly passed her one and she started being sick.

Once they were at the hospital she quickly got rid of it and lifted lily inside

Once they'd signed In they sat down

She sat on Rachel's knee and Rachel gave her a big cuddle

"Rachel I think I have to go to the toilet"

"Come on then let's go" she carried her out and took her to the nearest ones

She took her inside the cubicle

"Can you go out?" Lily asked

Rachel didn't really want to leave her when she was so poorly in case she collapsed or something but knew what lily was like and she'd Be really embarrassed with her their especially if she did have an upset stomach

A couple of minutes later lily came out looking really pale, once she'd washed her hands they sat back down in the waiting room.

Lily stayed on Rachel's knee, after earlier it felt so nice just snuggling into her and feeling safe

Eventually they were called through.

After Rachel explained what had happened and Lily's symptoms they decided to admit her on the wards and put her on observation while she was on a drip.

Rachel had packed some stuff for her and lily in case she was admitted so as soon as they got shown to the ward, and lily was on her drip Rachel got herself and lily changed into pyjamas

"Rachel I'm scared" lily whispered "there's loads of other children in here"

"I know darling there all poorly too, there's no need to be frightened my love I'm right here"

After a while lily drifted off to sleep, though it took Rachel ages to drop off and been when she did she had an awful nights sleep as she kept waking up

By the time morning came lily was feeling a lot better and when the doctor did his round she eventually decided to discharge her, though they were told to bring her straight back if she showed any symptoms again.

Both Rachel and lily were very relieved to be allowed to go home again.

Once they were In the car they started driving back home

"Love the last thing I want to do is give you a lecture after everything, but I really need you to understand why having the medicine was so dangerous"

"I do"

"And you promise me you'll never even touch any of the stuff in my medicine cupboard, without me being there"

"I promise"

"Though I do know I'm partly to blame for last night, I really am sorry for being so horrid to you, I wasn't fair in you at all was I"

"I am sorry for it"

"I know you are love" Rachel sighed

They'd been driving a little while when Rachel decided now might be a good opportunity to have a little chat to lily about yesterday while it was just the two of them

"So do you think you're maybe ready to say why you did what you did yesterday"

Lily shook her head and started crying again

"Oh love I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you, I just want to help that's all"

"They were all being so horrible to me" lily cried "they said I was weird because I don't have a real mummy and no one wanted to sit with me anymore so I was all by myself and they're never going to be friends with me ever again" lily sobbed

After she'd heard lily say this Rachel pulled in as soon as she could and put lily on her knee

She rocked her for a while and tried to soothe her

"Did your teacher see what was going on"

"No she just saw me hit her and then she got really angry"

"Well you see lily, if you'd told me or your teacher all this yesterday, do you think we'd have still been so angry with you"

"I don't know"

"Well obviously we'd have still been a bit angry, because by now you're a big girl so you're old enough to know what's right and what's wrong" Rachel said "and I think you're well aware that hitting people is wrong no matter how badly you were provoked"

"I know"

"But what they did to you was also completely unacceptable, and they should know that"

Lily snuggled into Rachel properly and suddenly started to feel a bit more relaxed

"So on Monday I'm going to have a few words okay, make sure everyone knows exactly what's been going on, I don't think it's fair you get all the blame for what's happened when it never would have happened without them provoking you"

"Thanks Rachel"

"That's alright darling" she said before giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead "how are you feeling have you got any pain"

"No"

"Good, you must tell me of you do though"

"I will"

"And remember me and joe and Rosie, we all love you lots and lots lily"

"I love you too" lily mumbled

"Even if we shout and get angry, you must remember it doesn't mean we love you any less and chances are we're not going to stay angry for very long"

Lily snuggled into her for a bit longer before getting back into her seat, so they d I've back.

Please review, I would really appreciate some ideas especially some stories I could do for Rosie xxxxxxxx


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